Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 10 December 2014
99. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the proposals there are to reform the coronial system and the Coroners Act 1962 to bring it in line with international standards; the reforms proposed; and when is it envisaged that they will be implemented. [47408/14]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware that the Coroners Bill 2007 is before the Seanad, having been restored to the Order Paper on the initiative of the previous Minister for Justice and Equality.
The Coroners Bill, as published, provides for the comprehensive reform of the existing legislation and structures relating to coroners and for the establishment of a new Coroner Service. The Bill incorporates many of the recommendations made by the Coroners Review Group in 2000 and by the Coroners Rules Committee in 2003, and also aims to further advance the State's compliance with its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.
However, the Bill needs review to take proper account both of intervening legal and coronial developments and, as regards the organisational reform, of the more constrained financial circumstances than those which prevailed when the Bill was originally drafted.
My Department is working to complete the review, and I intend then in the New Year to put in place a firm plan for progressing the Bill, having regard to other pressing commitments.
