Given that their focus is on deaths in sudden or controversial circumstances, few people understand the coroner’s role or function. In 2000, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform Working Group report called for fundamental reform, making it clear that inquests prioritise the needs of bereaved families. As well as providing bereaved families with answers, such public examination of circumstances should enable the prevention of some deaths. Most coroners are part-time, have no support staff and don’t have a designated place in which inquests can be accommodated appropriately. Vicky Conway is a law lecturer at DCU and is conducting research on the coroner’s system for the Irish Council for Civil Liberties with Prof Phil Scraton of Queen’s University Belfast

Source: The Irish Times May 17, 2019 00:06 UTC