Interim reports may have stopped delays in organ retention inquiry

ALARM bells about the ability of the Dunne Inquiry into Organ Retention to complete its work would have rung much sooner if it was obliged to produce interim progress reports, according to Comptroller and Auditor General.

John Purcell said it would have been preferable if the contractual arrangements with the inquiry chair, Anne Dunne SC, and her legal team had been structured so as to provide certainty about the early completion of their work.

The €13.8m inquiry that began its work in March 2001 was wound up by the Government in March last year and two months later the Government appointed legal expert Deirdre Madden to prepare a report on key issues relating to post mortem practices and procedures by December 2005.