Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 June 2013
337. Deputy Andrew Doyle asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide a breakdown of all the different categories, types and levels of fees charged by a local authority (details supplied) in County Wicklow on a graveyard by graveyard basis in each year from 2008 to 2012; the rules and regulations regarding burial grounds set down by him and his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29033/13]
View answerWhile my Department has responsibility for rules and regulations regarding burial grounds, this responsibility does not extend to the fees charged by local authorities. These costs are a matter for each local authority in respect of the cemeteries and burial grounds they provide .
The main legislative provisions dealing with the provision, management, regulation and control of burial grounds by local authorities are contained, in the first instance, in Part III of the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878 as amended in Part VI of the Local Government (Sanitary Services) Act, 1948 and more recently, the Local Government Act, 1994 and also in the Rules & Regulations for the Regulation of Burial Grounds 1888 and amendments thereto.
The following are the main provisions involved:
Section 160 of the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878 (hereafter referred to as “the Act”), deems each sanitary authority (Local Authority) to be the burial board for its administrative area.
Sections 172-174 of the Act empower burial boards to provide new burial grounds and extensions to existing ones.
Under Section 175 of the Act, a burial board may acquire land for cemeteries or an existing cemetery by agreement or may contract with a cemetery company for burials.
Section 177 places responsibility on the burial board for the care and maintenance of burial grounds provided by them.
Sections 179 and 180 enable burial boards to make arrangements for facilitating the conveyance of bodies to burial grounds and for the provision of places for the reception of bodies until interment.
Section 185 confers on the burial board the power to serve notice requiring a burial ground to be put in good order within a specified time limit of not less than 6 months. If the notice is not complied with, the burial board can carry out the necessary works. Section 185 of 1878 Act does not apply to burial grounds attached to a church which is still in use or in a private demesne.
Section 186 allows the burial board to fence burial grounds and put them in good order where the owner cannot be ascertained or a notice under Section 185 cannot be served.
Under Section 187, a burial board may undertake management of a burial ground at the owner's request and shall thereupon be deemed to be the owner thereof until the owner shall repay the expenses incurred.
Under Section 188, fees and payments in respect of internments in any burial ground provided by the burial board may be set, revised or altered by the burial board as they see fit.
Section 191 requires a Register of Burials to be kept by the burial board for each burial ground.
Section 196 requires burial boards to maintain any churchyard or burial ground which is not vested in any other person or persons and in which discontinuance of burials has been required by order.
Section 44 of the Local Government (Sanitary Services) Act, 1948 as amended by the Local Government Act, 1994 defines a burial ground.
Section 46 of that same Act, as amended by the 1994 Act, enables the burial board to grant exhumation licences.
