The final passage through the Dáil of the Coroners Bill 2018 is scheduled for 4.50pm Wednesday 15th May 2019 and can be see live from the Oireachtas, it will ensure that in future the tragedy of maternal death will in all cases have a public inquest.

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/dail-schedule/?selecteddate=2019-05-15

Dáil schedule
Schedule of Dáil sittings, Dáil business papers and calendar of sitting dates
www.oireachtas.ie

The origins of this government bill are Clare Daly’s Coroners 2015 Private Members Bill. Clare and her team have given ceaseless support to the Elephant Collective to secure this crucial legislative change which in future will give answers to families and gain accountability from our overburdened maternity services. This has been exemplary public service on Clare’s part and we thank her wholeheartedly. We thank the families and so many others who have helped this to happen.

Picking Up the Threads: Remaking the Fabric of Care

Maternal Deaths Remembered

Report Stage and Final Stage, Dáil Eireann

Coroners Bill 2018

Legislating for Mandatory Inquests for All Maternal Deaths

15th May, 2019.

Since November 2015, our exhibition has toured at the following venues: DIT Grangegorman, Donegal Regional Arts Centre, Wexford Film Festival, Culture Night Ennis 2016, Courthouse Gallery Ennistymon, Clare Women’s Network Weekend, Institute for Lifecourse and Society, NUIG, Limerick Women’s Network Ormston House, Limerick, MIRCI NUIG, the Bull Ring Wexford Town, Excel Arts and Cultural Centre Tipperary, Aula Maxima UCC, Entry for Radharc Documentary Awards 2018, Wexford Arts Centre.

Twenty-four county councils have passed a motion of support for this proposed change in legislation.

At long last the Bill will reach Report and Final Stage in the Dáil on Wednesday, 15th May, 2019 and we are seeking your support to ensure its onward passage from the Dáil to the Seanad for ratification.

The inquest is a formal public undertaking which without fear or favour sets out in detail the train of circumstances leading to an unexpected death. Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights sets out the following rights:

-Right to life

-Right to know why sudden death has occurred

-Remedy to prevent such deaths in the future

Families who have lost wives, partners and mothers need to know the circumstances of their deaths in the publicly accountable forum of a coroner’s court where all involved in a woman’s care state under oath their involvement in a woman’s care. The inquest sets out to establish the facts, the course of events, and upon a verdict of medical misadventure, the coroner is empowered to make recommendations to prevent such deaths in the future.

We need mandatory inquests for all maternal deaths:

‘Mandatory inquests for maternal deaths .. will have a triple effect when the Bill is implemented. It will give families the fullest picture about the train of events that led to the death of a loved one. It will give clinicians and the HSE a crucial insight into where the system is failing women.

Finally, it will give us, as policymakers and those holding the purse strings, the information to make our services safer.’ Clare Daly, TD, Committee for Justice and Equality, 12th December 2018.