THE BILL which had been drawn up to give wider powers of investigation to coroners should be reintroduced by the Minister for Justice, the Dublin city coroner has said.
Speaking at a conference in Dublin on inquests, Dr Brian Farrell said the Coroners Bill 2007 was needed as soon as possible to ensure Ireland complied with European jurisprudence and with its obligations under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Bill, drafted in 2007, lapsed when the current Government took office. It was designed to provide a legal framework for conducting inquests in compliance with the convention. It would also provide coroners in the State with increased investigative powers and address shortfalls in the domestic law regarding inquests.
Under the European convention the State has an obligation to hold a public inquiry where a death occurs of an individual or individuals in the care or custody of the State or when the death is caused by agents of the State.
The inquiry must be held in public, must involve the next of kin and must be prompt, independent and effective.
Dr Farrell said the Bill was not on the Government’s legislative programme and he called for it to be added. “That will allow the development of coroners’ rules of practice and procedure, which I think are badly needed; and it will also introduce the future structure of the coroners’ court,” he said.
He also said he was concerned about the turnaround time for inquests. Between five and seven months after a death was the optimum time, he said, but some inquests require reports from a variety of sources and so took longer. His office had developed an interim certificate of “the fact of death” to aid families and the new legislation would give statutory backing to those.
Lawyer Pat Finucane outlined UK case law that had forced changes to inquests there. He told health workers at the conference they had different legal obligations now because of what has been put in place by the convention. Their actions could be the subject of scrutiny “to a much greater degree than they were before”, he said.
