State pathologist and city coroner to get new offices

THE Department of Justice and Dublin City Council are in negotiations to build a multi-million-euro facility, which would house the offices of the State pathologist and city coroner.

Construction of the Dublin Medico-Legal Centre, the provisional name given to the project, would end years of neglect for both offices.

The City Coroner’s Office, comprising of the coroner’s court and the morgue, had been based in neighbouring buildings in Store Street until 1999.

The morgue, an out-of- date building which contravened health and safety requirements, was then demolished, with a temporary mortuary facility established at the Dublin Fire Brigade training centre in Marino.

The coroner’s court remained in Store Street, however. The State Pathologist’s Office meanwhile, had been located in a cramped section of Trinity College Dublin since its establishment in 1974.

In March last year it too was temporarily relocated to the training centre at Marino. Successive justice ministers promised a new facility for the state pathology service, but never delivered.

The last proposal was for a facility on the grounds of Beaumont Hospital, but the department abandoned the idea in 2000.

The new medico-legal centre, if given the green- light, would be built on a site on Store Street currently being used by the gardaí as a compound for recovered stolen vehicles.

The city council has forwarded a project design to the department, which is currently considering it.

According to a council spokeswoman yesterday, the design offers several options based on the funding that would be made available.

The project would be jointly financed, as the council has responsibility for the coroner’s office while the department oversees state pathology.

Neither side would reveal estimates of how much the centre would cost yesterday, the department saying the release of such information could “prejudice the conduct or outcome of contractual negotiations”.

There would be clear advantages to locating both services in the one centre, however, if the project were to be approved. The role of the coroner is to establish the “who, when, where and how” of unexplained death.

In cases of suspicious death, a postmortem is required and carried out by the State pathologist, acting as the coroner’s agent.

The department has estimated that approximately 60% of the work of the state pathology service takes place in the city morgue, where the bulk of postmortems are carried out.

If the State pathologist confirms a death is due to unnatural causes the coroner must hold an inquest by law.