Overhaul needed for 'inhumane' inquests system, says Cork barrister

"There should be root-and-branch reform, and it has been recommended as far back as 2000," says barrister Doireann O’Mahony.

Hotels or conference centres would lend more privacy and dignity to bereaved families, barrister Doireann O'Mahony has suggested. Picture: Miki Barlok

The current system for inquests is inhumane to families, according to a barrister who believes the area needs to be overhauled.

Doireann O’Mahony practices in the area of medical negligence and says that the current inquest system is intimidating for families.

“Sometimes families can feel that the system itself adds to their suffering,” she said.

She described medical inquests as a very hostile environment for families, particularly as they will see people from the hospital, the Health Service Executive, the State Claims Agency, and lawyers in large numbers — while they are on their own.

“It can be very intimidating," she said.

And the environment of a courtroom is very cold, very clinical.” 

She suggested that hotels or conference centres would lend more privacy and dignity to bereaved families, allowing them space to take breaks from proceedings during an inquest.

She described the current system for families as inhumane.

“There is no consistency," she said.

In Cork, there is a full-time coroner, but in most of the other districts, they are part-timers — they are either doctors or solicitors and lawyers. 

"They do it maybe one day a week or one day a fortnight. There should be root-and-branch reform and it has been recommended as far back as 2000. 

"There was a bill passed by Michael McDowell in 2007 which made all these fabulous recommendations for reform and modernisation, and it all fell by the wayside.” 

She added that the 2019 Coroners Act, which made provision for mandatory inquests in maternal deaths, was merely “tinkering around the edges”.

She believes there needs to be more resources put into the system, which she says “is literally creaking at the seams”. She stresses that there also needs to be more staff available, particularly in the Cork City Coroner’s Office.

Ms O’Mahony said there needs to be a set of rules for coroners and best-practice guidelines so that families are getting “the same treatment no matter where you are”. 

She also stressed that communication with families is also vital, elaborating that people are not aware of what an inquest actually is and what the role of the coroner is.

There should be communication from the moment a death is reported to the coroner, right through to when the inquest is concluded, between the coroner’s office and the family,” she said. 

She is co-author of the book Medical Inquests, written with Roger Murray and David O’Malley.

Earlier this year, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties published a report on death investigation and inquests in Ireland which said the current system creates “ongoing human rights violations” for bereaved families.