Kerry County Council is still spending hundreds of thousands of euro every year for a service which the Department of Justice pays for local authorities in Dublin.
Local authorities outside Dublin must pay for the county coroner’s salary, fees and expenses in their own jurisdiction.
Within Dublin, the cost is covered by the Department of Justice.
The issue was raised at this month’s meeting of Kerry County Council by Fianna Fáil’s Michael Cahill.
Cllr Michael Cahill tabled a motion that Kerry County Council request an urgent meeting with the Minister for Justice about this anomaly.
He said this is an enormous burden on the county’s finances.
Cllr Cahill says the council has spent €1.6 million on this service within the last five years; the council says the budget set aside for the Coroner Unit for 2024 was €371,000, while 749 cases were reported to the coroner in 2023.
The Fianna Fáil councillor added he cannot see how anyone could consider the coroner’s court under the remit of the local authority.
He says this money would be better spent on improving roads and footpaths, improving housing estates, business and community grans, and more.
Cllr Cahill said the councillors are on the verge of going into another difficult budget yet again, and this is money that could be better spent elsewhere.
As part of the council’s response to his motion, the council said the Coroners Bill 2007 proposed major reform with a new national service under the auspices of the Department of Justice and Equality and an end to local authority involvement, but this was never enacted.
Cllr Cahill’s motion to request a meeting with Minister McEntee was seconded by Independent councillor Charlie Farrelly.
