Dublin City Coroner's Court has scheduled 55 inquests this week to cope with the high volume of cases.
The court will sit from Monday to Friday to handle the cases. It normally sits only on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons.
Last year, the Dublin city coroner completed 465 cases and expects to deal with about 500 this year. In 1998, 520 cases were heard. Up to 2,000 sudden deaths are reported to the Dublin office each year, according to a spokesman. In about one-third of these cases a death certificate is obtainable, but post-mortem examinations are ordered in the remaining 1,300 or so. Inquests are needed into about 400 of these deaths. i or in prison.
Because of difficulties in empanelling juries, the coroner's office this year has attempted to limit the number of jury cases heard each day to two to allow the jurors finish at a reasonable hour.
Of the 11 cases listed for today, seven involve drugs-related deaths, mostly of young men in the 20 to 30 age group.