On the retirement of the Coroner for County Westmeath in June 2018, the duties of Coroner for County Westmeath were assigned to the acting Coroner for County Offaly. Previously, the coroners for Offaly and Westmeath had acted as each other's Deputy Coroner.
Both local authorities are in agreement with the new arrangement.
The position whereby one Coroner has responsibility for two coronial districts in different local authority areas is not an unusual one. A similar situation pertains in both Cavan/Monaghan and Sligo/Leitrim. In proposing such an arrangement both Councils concerned were consulted, with the respective workloads in each district and, of course, the willingness of the coroner to act being taken into account.