Coroners (Amendment) Act 2019

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Citation: IR No. 29/2019

Number 29 of 2019
CORONERS (AMENDMENT) ACT 2019
CONTENTS
1. Definition
2. Amendment of section 2 of Principal Act
3. Application of Act to stillbirths
4. Amendment of section 6A of Principal Act
5. Amendment of section 8 of Principal Act
6. Amendment of section 11 of Principal Act
7. Amendment of section 13 of Principal Act
8. Arrangements for coroner’s district of Dublin
9. Amendment of Principal Act - reporting of deaths
10. General duty to hold inquest
11. Amendment of section 18(1) of Principal Act
12. Purpose of inquest
13. Notice of inquest
14. Amendment of section 20 of Principal Act
15. Amendment of section 24 of Principal Act
16. Amendment of section 25 of Principal Act
17. Identification of body of deceased person
18. Amendment of section 30 of Principal Act
19. Amendment of section 31 of Principal Act
20. Amendment of section 32 of Principal Act
21. Post-mortem examinations and related matters
22. Amendment of section 36 of Principal Act
23. Amendment of section 37 of Principal Act
24. Power with respect to taking of evidence, etc., at inquest
25. Taking of evidence from person about to leave State
26. Amendment of section 40 of Principal Act
27. Amendment of section 43 of Principal Act
28. Amendment of section 46 of Principal Act
30. Entry to premises to inspect, copy, take extracts from or seize documents, etc.
31. Expert advice and assistance for coroners in certain circumstances
32. Supply of forms to coroner
33. Amendment of section 58 of Principal Act
34. Amendment of section 60 of Principal Act
35. Offences by body corporate
36. Directions of High Court
37. Performance of functions by designated officers of Ombudsman Commission under Coroners Act 1962
38. Amendment of Principal Act - Second Schedule specifying reportable deaths
39. Repeals
40. Short title, collective citation and commencement
SCHEDULE
Deaths Reportable to Coroner
Acts Referred to
Child Care Act 1991 (No. 17)
Children Act 2001 (No. 24)
Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 (No. 24)
Civil Registration Act 2004 (No. 3)
Coroners Act 1962 (No. 9)
Coroners Acts 1962 to 2013
Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006 (No. 11)
Defence Act 1954 (No. 18)
Defence Acts 1954 to 2015
Garda Síochána Act 2005 (No. 20)
Medical Practitioners Act 2007 (No. 25)
Mental Health Act 2001 (No. 25)
Prisons Act 2007 (No. 10)
Number 29 of 2019
CORONERS (AMENDMENT) ACT 2019
An Act to amend the Coroners Act 1962 and to provide for related matters.
[23rd July, 2019]
Be it enacted by the Oireachtas as follows:
		Definition
1. In this Act “Principal Act” means the Coroners Act 1962 .
		Amendment of section 2 of Principal Act
2. Section 2 of the Principal Act is amended—
	(a) in the definition of “coroner”, by the substitution of “except in sections 6, 6A, 7, 8, 11, 11A and 16” for “except in sections 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 16 and 59”,
	(b) by the substitution of the following definition for the definition of “registered medical practitioner”:
	“ ‘registered medical practitioner’ means a person who is a registered medical practitioner within the meaning of section 2 of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 ;”,
	and
	(c) by the insertion of the following definitions:
	“ ‘Act of 2004’ means the Civil Registration Act 2004 ;
	‘body’, in relation to a deceased person, means the body or a part of the body of the person and includes the cremated remains of the person;
	‘child in care’ means a child who was in the care of the Child and Family Agency under section 4 or Part III, IV or IVA of the Child Care Act 1991 ;
	‘designated officer of the Ombudsman Commission’ means—
	(a) an officer of the Ombudsman Commission, or
	(b) a person engaged by the Ombudsman Commission under section 74 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 ,
	who is designated by the Ombudsman Commission under section 73 of that Act for the purpose of performing functions under Part 4 of that Act relating to a relevant Ombudsman Commission investigation;
	‘direct maternal death’ means the death of a woman resulting from obstetric complications of the pregnant state whether arising during pregnancy, labour or puerperium and whether from obstetric interventions, omissions, or incorrect treatment or from a chain of events resulting from any of them;
	‘disposal’, in relation to the body of a deceased person, means lawful disposal, either on land or at sea, by burial, cremation, scattering of the ashes of the remains of the body or other appropriate means;
	‘document’ means—
	(a) a book, record or other written or printed material,
	(b) a photograph,
	(c) any information stored, maintained or preserved by means of any mechanical or electronic device, whether or not stored, maintained or preserved in legible form, and
	(d) any audio or video recording;
	‘enactment’ means a statute or an instrument made under a power conferred by statute;
	‘end of pregnancy’ means the end of pregnancy by giving birth, by miscarriage or by intervention or in any other circumstances;
	‘family member’, in relation to a deceased person, means—
	(a) a parent, grandparent, child, brother, sister, nephew, niece, uncle or aunt, whether of the whole blood, of the half blood or by affinity, of the person,
	(b) a spouse, a civil partner within the meaning of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 or a cohabiting partner of the person,
	(c) any other person who is ordinarily a member of the person’s household, or
	(d) any child who has been placed in foster care with the person or any person referred to in paragraphs (a) to (c),
	and includes a reference to any such member of the person’s family who is adopted;
	‘findings’, in relation to an inquest, shall be construed in accordance with section 18A(1);
	‘indirect maternal death’ means the death of a woman resulting from a pre-existing disease, or a disease that developed during pregnancy, and which was not the result of direct obstetric causes, but which was aggravated by the physiological effects of pregnancy;
	‘infant death’ means the death of a live born child occurring immediately after birth or within 365 days of birth;
	‘late maternal death’ means the death of a woman occurring more than 42 days and less than 365 days after the end of pregnancy from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, includes a direct maternal death or an indirect maternal death occurring during that period;
	‘maternal death’ means the death of a woman while pregnant, or within 42 days of the end of pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, includes a direct maternal death or an indirect maternal death occurring during that period;
	‘Ombudsman Commission’ means the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission;
	‘post-mortem examination’ includes an examination of marks or injuries on a body, a full three cavity examination, and any ancillary examination by way of analysis, test or otherwise of the body or of material (whether of tissue, organs, biological fluids or other parts or contents of the body or of any other substance or thing relevant to such examination) carried out by an appropriately qualified registered medical practitioner or under his or her direction;
	‘pregnancy’ includes an ectopic pregnancy;
	‘prison’ has the meaning it has in section 2 of the Prisons Act 2007 ;
	‘relevant Ombudsman Commission investigation’ means an investigation of a complaint or matter by the Ombudsman Commission under Part 4 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 concerning the death of the person in relation to whose death a coroner is performing functions under this Act;
	‘reportable death’ shall be construed in accordance with section 16A;
	‘service custody’ means the holding under arrest or in confinement of a person by the Defence Forces under the Defence Acts 1954 to 2015 and any Act that is to be construed as one with those Acts, including confinement in a military prison, or a detention barrack, within the meaning of those Acts;
	‘State custody or detention’ means being—
	(a) in the custody of the Garda Síochána,
	(b) in custody in a prison,
	(c) in service custody,
	(d) involuntarily detained under Part 2 of the Mental Health Act 2001 in an approved centre within the meaning of section 2 of that Act,
	(e) detained in a designated centre within the meaning of section 3 of the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006 or being a person to whom section 20 of that Act refers, or
	(f) remanded to a remand centre within the meaning of section 3 of the Children Act 2001 or being detained in a children detention school within the meaning of that section;
	‘statutory body’ means a body established by or under statute;
	‘stillborn child’ means a child of not less than 24 weeks’ gestation, or of birth weight of not less than 500 grammes, who is delivered without signs of life.”.
		Application of Act to stillbirths
3. The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 2:
	“2A. (1) This Act, other than sections 17, 18, 33A and 40, shall, where the context so requires, apply to a stillborn child in the same manner as it applies to a deceased person subject to the modification that the provisions in subsections (2) to (5) shall apply to a stillborn child instead of sections 17, 18 and 33A, and any other necessary modifications.
	(2) Where a coroner is informed that the body of a stillborn child is lying within his or her district and that a...