Cork City Council bearing cost of €6m coroner service

Cork City Council has spent almost €6m on its coroner service coroner service in the last five years, while Dublin’s is funded by the Government.

Cork City Council administers funding relating to coroner’s services in Cork city to cover coroner salaries and non-pay expenditure, morgue costs, and administrative support.

Figures provided at last night’s council meeting show that the council spent €5,898,614 in total between 2021 and 2025, with costs increasing nearly 8% over that period to €1,259,664 last year.

Rebecca Loughry, the council’s director of corporate, community, and cultural affairs, said: “The coroners service in Cork city is fully funded from the council budget, with no funding available to be recouped from central Government currently.”

Council CEO Valerie O’Sullivan said she had written previously to the Department of Justice, noting: “Dublin City Council does not have to fund that considerable expense”. However, she said: “It wasn’t a successful correspondence, and we are stuck with it.”

Financial responsibility for the coroner service has rested with local authorities since the introduction of the modern system.

However, responsibility for the Dublin District Coroner’s Office was transferred from Dublin City Council to the Department of Justice in 2018.

Legislative change is required for the funding of the coroner service to be removed from the responsibility of local authorities.

The Government has been working since 2024 on new legislation for a national coronial service that is centrally funded.

Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan said last month that department officials are drafting the heads of bill to bring them before Government in the coming months.

Sinn Féin’s Kenneth Collins told The Echo: “Dublin city does not have to pay for this service — we should not either.”