Coroners (Amendment) Act 2019

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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.”.