The first avenue relatives can pursue in searching for a reason for the death of a loved one is an inquest. But many questions may remain unanswered after taking this course, and the bereaved are often dissatisfied with the outcome.
If they are, they may be able to seek the help of the courts by taking a civil action against the person or body they consider responsible for the death. But this can be a lengthy and expensive process.
An inquest is conducted by a coroner, a part-time State official who is either a solicitor or a doctor, but the verdict is actually brought in by a jury.
There are no guidelines for coroners, and juries are empanelled in a much more informal manner than in a court.
Individual coroners may seek to ensure that the jury does not contain anyone with close links to any of the parties involved in the inquest (in this case, the Garda Siochana), but there are no procedures to enforce this.
The coroner summarises the evidence and outlines to the jury the questions it has to answer and the possible verdicts it may reach.
He stresses to jurors that they are the arbiters of the facts surrounding the death, and warns them that they cannot go outside the facts.
Inquests are restricted by legislation in the findings they can make.
They can neither blame nor exonerate anyone involved in the death, they cannot decide liability, and they cannot make recommendations as to the future.
Apart from reaching a verdict, all they can do is decide when, where and how a deceased person met his or her death and what was the medical cause of death.
The possible verdicts are accidental death, unlawful killing and an open verdict. It is also possible for the jury to bring in a suicide verdict but the burden of proof for this is very high and includes solid evidence that the deceased intended to kill himself.
An open verdict is reached if the jury feels it cannot bring in any of the other verdicts.
The jury may not bring in a verdict at all, restricting itself to a bare statement of the facts, as it did in this case.
The jury may add a rider to its findings, in the form of a comment favouring a certain course of action.
Such a rider could, for example, relate to a particularly dangerous stretch of road, where there had been a number of accidents, including the one that caused the death under examination. A jury's rider might advise that this stretch of road should be made more safe.
But such a rider has absolutely no force in law, and carries no weight.
"It's a matter of pious platitudes. There's no place for it to be sent," said one coroner.
The issue paper recording the outcome of an inquest, including the verdict and the jury's conclusions about the circumstances of death, is sent to the Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths.