There should be provision for reviews of coroners' decisions, according to a working group on a Review of the Coroners' Service. This should include the possibility of holding a new inquest into the cause of death.
The report, which recommends the drafting of a new Coroner Act, has gone to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
The report recommends the establishment of a review board which would advise the Attorney General on whether a second inquest should be held if relatives or other interested parties request one. The final decision on the matter would rest with the Attorney General.
The report also recommends a total reorganisation of the coroners' service. This would include the creation of a new coroner agency, a reduction in the number of coroners, the introduction of a regional structure and the creation of a new post of coroners' officer to provide support both to coroners and relatives.
Training in law and medicine should be provided for the doctors and lawyers respectively who are appointed as coroners.
Relatives should be given the option of stating whether they wish to know, before burial, whether organs have been removed and of the options available for the return or disposal of body parts.
They should also be advised that any further retention beyond what was necessary for establishing the cause of death was a matter between them and the medical authorities, according to the report.
The review board to be set up to review coroners' decisions should consist of three members: a barrister or solicitor, a member of the staff of the Attorney General's office and a member of the Coroners Association of Ireland.
The situations where an application for review might arise would include where the coroner concluded that death was due to natural causes, where a coroner decided not to proceed with an inquest, where new evidence likely to change the original verdict had emerged, where disagreement existed over a coroner's procedural handling of an inquest, where relatives or other interested parties were not satisfied with the verdict of a first inquest and where a coroner himself wished to initiate a review.
The recommendations to the Attorney General should include that an inquiry be made into the circumstances surrounding a death; that a first inquest be held; that a second inquest be held and that no further inquest or inquiry be held.
The working group recommends that, following the acceptance of the report by the Government, a committee consisting of no more than eight should be established to draw up coroners' rules in line with the report.
It should consist of representatives from the Coroners' Association, the Departments of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and of Health and Children, the Attorney General's Office, the Faculty of Pathology of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and a representative of the bereaved.
The report also recommended the provision of general information on the coroners' service to the public.