INQUESTS throughout the State are to be suspended from next Friday as 49 coroners seek to be indemnified against possible court actions arising from their rulings, and an improvement in their conditions.
Dr Bartley Sheehan, coroner for the three Dublin counties, and spokesman for the Coroners' Association of Ireland, said they had decided at their annual general meeting last Wednesday to take action, following a court case in the summer.
The High Court overturned a ruling made by Dr John Glynn, deputy coroner in Co Donegal, at an inquest in 1994, and awarded costs against him personally.
The case resulted from Dr Glynn's refusal to read out a suicide note at the inquest into the death of a man who drove over a pier with his infant son. The man's family wanted the suicide note read out, but Dr Glynn ruled against it. His decision was over turned following a judicial review on June 10th last.
A meeting has since taken place between representatives of the Coroners' Association and officials from the Department of Justice and the Attorney General's office. To date however, there has been little progress.
Dr Sheehan said the association had decided to suspend inquests because their dealings with the authorities had been "coloured" by past experience.
He said they had been in "deep negotiations" with various government departments and local authorities for four years about their terms and conditions.
These had not been reviewed since 1949, and meant that the average income of coroners here was between £2,000 and £3 000 per annum. As a result many of them were operating "at a very substantial loss."
The coroners have been in "unsatisfactory" talks with the Department of Finance, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Environment, the Attorney General's office, and the local authorities.
They are to seek leave to apply for ajudicial review of their terms and conditions, on the grounds that the 1949 review, under which these matters were set, "never anticipated coroners being out of pocket as a result of their work".
Dr Sheehan said that as coroner for the three Dublin counties he is paid a salary of £8,840, which includes a secretarial allowance of £2,000. Last year he dealt with 600 unexpected deaths, treble what he was dealing with when he took office in 1973.
He said his secretary spends about 32 hours a week on coroner related paperwork, while he himself spends an average eight to 10 hours a week on such work.
