Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898

Powers of county council as to appointment of coroners and coroners’ districts and provision as to removal, salary, and qualification of coroner.

14.(1) . . . . On a vacancy in the office of a coroner for a county the county council shall within one month after the vacancy, or such further time not exceeding three months after the vacancy as the Lord Chancellor may allow, appoint a qualified person to the office, and if the county is divided into coroners’ districts assign him a district.

(2) The county council may alter the coroners’ districts, and the enactments respecting those districts shall apply as if the county council were the justices assembled in special sessions for that purpose under the direction of the Lord Lieutenant, and the secretary of the county council were the clerk of the peace . . . .

(3) The Lord Chancellor may, if he thinks fit, remove any coroner for a county from his office for inability or misbehaviour in the discharge of his duty.

(4) The writ de coronatore eligendo need not be issued, but neither the omission to issue that writ nor anything else in this section shall alter the jurisdiction of the Lord Chancellor, or the High Court or a judge of assize, in relation to the removal of a coroner otherwise than in manner provided by this Act, or in relation to ordering a new election of a coroner.

(5) A person who is a coroner for a county shall not be qualified to be elected, or to be, a county or district councillor in that county.

(6) The salary of every coroner shall be in lieu of all sums which otherwise would be payable to him for fees, mileage, and allowances, and shall be fixed with the approval of the Local Government Board by the county or borough council by whom the salary is payable, or in default of the same being so fixed then by the Local Government Board, and shall not be subject to increase or diminution during his tenure of office.

Provided that—

(a) nothing in this section shall deprive the coroner of the right to be repaid expenses and disbursements lawfully paid by him on the holding of any inquest; and

(b) the salary of any existing coroner shall not be less than the average annual net receipts of such coroner from his office of coroner during the five years next before the passing of this Act.

(7) So much of any Act as requires that a coroner shall possess a property qualification shall be and the same is hereby repealed.