Vol. 546 No. 5
44 Mr. Bell asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason for the delay in the implementation of the review of the coroner service; when the rules committee recommended by the review will be established; his plans to expedite reform of the legislation having regard to the effective collapse of two inquests (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32075/01]
I refer the Deputy to my reply to Parliamentary Question No. 113 on Tuesday, 13 November 2001, where I indicated that the report of the working group on the review of the coroner service was published in December 2000 following a Government decision to approve the preparation of new legislation by my Department. Part of that legislative preparation involves the development of coroner rules and work on these rules has already commenced. The first meeting of the rules committee took place on Thursday, 1 November 2001. Since my reply to the Deputy, a further meeting of the rules committee took place on 19 November and another is scheduled for 17 December. As I also indicated in that reply, my Department is currently examining how implementation of the overall review can best be progressed in advance of introducing the new legislation.
In relation to the cases for which details were supplied, the issues raised in these cases have already been identified in the report of the working group and will be considered in the context of preparing the new legislation.
