President of the Coroners Society of Ireland,
Members of the Coroners Society of Ireland,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
I am very pleased to be here with you in Ennis this evening on the occasion of your annual Conference Diner. This is my first formal engagement as Minister with the Coroners Society of Ireland. I also understand that a Minister for Justice, within whose departmental remit the coroner falls, has not been able to be with you since 2004. That is too long and I am happy to put that right.
The Coroners Society plays a very important role in representing the views of coroners as a group and I am pleased to acknowledge your constructive input into policy and the positive relations that exist between the Society and my Department. I want to continue that positive relationship. I will ensure that as we go forward, my Department will continue to support the Society in these important developmental activities.
I am delighted to acknowledge the warm Clare welcome extended to me and Carol. I am sure that this warm welcome has also been extended to your colleague coroners from Northern Ireland and England and Wales. As coroners, no doubt you will benefit from the sharing of experiences in the interesting and complex area of coronial law and practice.
I have already met some of the coroners here present and I hope to be able to speak to as many of you as I can this evening. I look forward to hearing of your experiences and concerns in regard to everyday problems and issues of wider reform and I am sure, no doubt, some amusing anecdotes as well. I should admit that, in my legal career I had very little experience of coronial matters. I expect nothing less than a crash course from you in educating me in all that I don’t know this evening.
From the Conference Programme this year, I can see the extent and range of the important and complex problems and issues that coroners face in carrying out your functions. It reflects the heavy burden you carry to ensure that a proper public investigation takes place in order to reassure the public as to the cause of death in those cases reported to you.
However, I have to admit to being somewhat intrigued at the lecture you had on the “coroner and crime fiction”.
Tonight is very much a social occasion and an opportunity for you as coroners to reaffirm your collegiality in that role. I am pleased that this occasion permits me to address the Society and to publicly acknowledge your role and to thank you for the contribution you make. The coroner is one of the most ancient of our public services and yet remains a vital service. Coroners continue to have the important, difficult and delicate task to explain the deaths of loved ones to their family, their friends and to the wider society.
Let me reiterate here this evening my commitment to maintaining the primacy of the role of the coroner as primary independent officer with responsibility for the medico-legal investigation of the circumstances of sudden, unexplained and unnatural deaths. Your inquest provides accessibility to the deceased's family and affords a sufficient element of public scrutiny.
We are living in challenging and changing times and coronial law and practice are influenced by economic and social changes and are constantly evolving. The Coroners Act 1962, although it has many good features and has reasonably stood the test of time, needs to be updated to reflect developments in coronial law and practice in other jurisdictions and to ensure that the obligations placed on the State by the European Convention on Human Rights are fulfilled.
In the common law world, many jurisdictions have been considering or have enacted coronial reform on the lines reflected in the Coroners Bill 2007. In completing our reform, we have the opportunity to learn from the practical experience of these reforms before proceeding with our own. I hope that your deliberations this weekend will contribute to the process of reform.
On coming into office as Minister, one of the first steps I took was to restore the Coroners Bill 2007 to the Seanad Order Paper. The Bill, as published, provides for the comprehensive reform of the existing legislation and structures relating to coroners and provides for the establishment of a new Coroner Service. The Bill is in the course of being reviewed in my Department with a view, among other matters, to making it as cost-effective as possible in regard to the administrative arrangements.
However, coronial reform must be placed in the context of Public Service Reform generally. I don’t need tonight to go into the need for substantial reductions in the budget deficit in order to meet our obligations under the EU/IMF agreement. But, the challenges we face are unprecedented. The Government’s Public Service Reform programme is far-reaching and ambitious, with some 200 actions across a range of areas. Every part of the Irish public service, not least the justice sector, is going through a major transformation to ensure that services are more customer-focused, leaner, better integrated and delivering value for money.
The Government is faced with significant challenges with regard to the public finances. The economic landscape has significantly changed since the Bill was first published. Many difficult decisions with regard to expenditure programs throughout the public service have been made and will continue to be made. All aspects of Government expenditure have been revisited and re-examined closely in terms of priority and this situation is likely to continue for some time to come.
This has, of course, affected our plans for reforming the coroner service and has led to a critical review by my Department of how best the necessary reforms can be achieved.
Mindful of this changed circumstance I must consider how best to progress the reform programme for the coroner service in the short to medium term. The Society has had discussions with my Department on what may be the optimal solution in regard to structures and administration for the Coroner Service. I know that you will continue this level of close cooperation as I believe that we need to work together to ensure that we ultimately achieve our collective goal of a modern coroner service, supported by updated laws.
Let me thank you also for your ongoing contribution to the development of amendments to the text of the Bill in many extensive meetings with my officials in preparation for eventual Committee Stage. Given the complexity of the Bill this is not an easy task. Many of these amendments will refine the existing text to ensure that the Bill reflects the needs of coroners and takes cognisance of recent case-law and emerging trends in coronial practice.
While it would be my intention to progress the Coroners Bill as soon as is practicable, the Government’s current legislative programme – particularly in the Justice area - is very heavy. I cannot, unfortunately, be definitive tonight on timeframes. There are also significant pressures on the staff resources available to me. In addition, the forthcoming Irish Presidency of the EU in the first half of 2013 will, unfortunately add to those pressures. I have had to prioritise the legislation that both my staff and the staff of the Attorney General’s Office and Parliamentary Counsel can realistically cope with at this time and our obligation to implement the Justice part of the program of reforms agreed with the Troika has had to be given top priority
But we have made some progress. Pending the overall reform, I took the opportunity last year in preparing the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011 to include some early coronial reforms, including provisions for
· amalgamation of districts within local authority areas on retirement of a coroner – this provision has since been used in Wexford where Dr. Nixon is now Coroner for the whole of County Wexford;
· consolidating Dublin city and counties into one coronial district – this amalgamation which has been operated by Dr. Farrell for the last year gives us a model on which we can potentially base future reforms; and
· appointing a neighbouring coroner as temporary coroner in line with the ultimate development of a regionalised approach.
Another important development relates to physical infrastructure. I was delighted in July to be able to announce that the Government’s capital investment programme, which is aimed at creating 13,000 jobs and stimulating economic growth, includes funding for the medico-legal centre project for the Office of the State Pathologist, headed by Professor Marie Cassidy and the Dublin Coroner, Dr. Farrell.
Building work had actually commenced on this shared service project in Marino in Dublin, but the project was subsequently postponed due to insufficient funding. The new funding will allow this project to be recommenced. It will incorporate post-mortem rooms, laboratories and modern mortuary facilities for use by the Office of the State Pathologist and the Dublin Coroner and also by other coroners in a shared service environment. The state of the art facility will play a vital role in the death investigation process and provide enhanced facilities for staff, professionals and members of the public.
December 2009 saw the launch of the website coroners.ie which was developed in consultation with the Society. The IT unit in my Department tells me that
there have been in excess of seventy one and a half thousand page-views on the website since then. It is good to know that this overview of the crucial service you provide, together with your individual contact details is so accessible to the public and that the website is accessed so frequently.
The Coroners Service Team in Navan has asked me to mention that we would like to see greater participation in the Coroners Forum, which was launched at the conference last year. Considerable time and effort was put in by the Team to provide a facility for the on-line sharing of information between coroners. I would urge you to revisit the forum, make use of the facility, and remember that a forum is only as good as its contributors.
An issue that I particularly noted, as made to me in parliamentary questions and representations, over the past year is that of suicide. Your Conference Programme again considered the issue earlier today. Regrettably, there are an increasing number of cases in our society that involve suicide. Your investigation as coroners places you in the front line. In the conduct of that investigation, I am mindful that you bear a heavy duty in reaching a verdict in such cases. You must be sure as to the cause of death. You cannot rush to a judgment even if, on first consideration, the conclusion of suicide may be very much apparent. Yet, if appropriate, you cannot shirk from the correct and necessary recording of that tragic verdict.
I know that coroners are especially sensitive, in so far as is possible, to the needs of families and friends in the handling of all such inquests where suicide may be in question. There is almost unbearable hurt and trauma involved in all tragic death situations, but perhaps especially in regard to suicide.
Coroners very much support preventative measures and interventions that can assist a person in distress from taking that very final step. Also, the work of voluntary groups, who provide practical assistance and support to persons bereaved by suicide, is of such importance. I am pleased that links to such groups are provided via the coroner's website.
I have received some, very understandable requests to amend the law to exclude the public and media from an inquest which may be investigating a death resulting from suicide. While understandable, I would not intend to take that approach. The Coroners Review Group did not recommend that any particular category of inquest be held other than in public. That has always been the position in this State and I believe that should remain the position.
Coroners also investigate deaths as a result of a road traffic accident. Inquests offer the opportunity to a coroner to make recommendations designed to prevent similar deaths occurring in the future. This has been used to very good effect by many coroners in highlighting issues of concern such as the dangers of speeding and drink driving. Coroners, in doing so, have contributed greatly to raising greater awareness of road safety in this country.
Thankfully, 2011 witnessed the lowest recorded number of road fatalities on Irish roads, at 186, since records began back in 1959. Road fatalities fell last year for the sixth consecutive year in a row. Ongoing initiatives such as safety cameras have also had a significant and very positive influence on road user culture in Ireland. It is fair to say that our roads have, without question, become increasingly safe for all users in recent years. This progress has been maintained so far in 2012 but we should not, however, allow a sense of complacency to set in.
While mentioning the subject of road safety, I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the sterling work done by your colleague the coroner for Kildare Professor Denis Cusack and his team in the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, whose scientific analysis and expertise provides a major contribution to road safety in Ireland.
Reform and modernisation of the coroner service and coronial law must come as our existing law and structures require significant improvement. While the difficult economic situation has delayed our progress and caused us to rethink our approach to organisation, I can assure you that the Government is still committed to this reform process. The Coroners Act of 1962 is outdated and can no longer be said to best equip you the coroners with the appropriate measures to conduct the death investigation.
I want to conclude my remarks by congratulating Isobel O’Dea on her successful term of office as President over the last 2 years and to thank her for the always professional and pleasant manner in which she has conducted the Society’s business with my Department.
Let me offer my best wishes to the incoming President of the Society, Tony Casey from Limerick for his term of office and wish him every success.
And now, I would like to propose a toast to the Coroners Society, its President and its members, in recognition of the valuable work that you do for our citizens.
Thank you.