Part-time coroners defend earnings of more than €100,000

Six coroners working on a part-time basis each earned more than €100,000 in gross

fees and retainers in 2014.

The figures, based on returns to the Coroners’ Service, show 40 coroners earned aggregate gross fees of €3.17 million in 2014.

The coroner for Cork South and West, Frank O’Connell, earned €164,194; Dr Ciaran MacLoughlin in Galway West earned €158,581; Kildare coroner Dr Denis Cusack received €126,040; and the Wexford coroner, Dr Seán Nixon, earned €114,428.

The coroner for Louth, Ronan Maguire, received €101,237 and the coroner for Kerry North and West, Helen Lucey, earned €101,000.

There are two full-time coroners. Dr Brian Farrell, the Dublin coroner who is a salaried employee of Dublin City Council, received €266,463. The Cork County Borough coroner, Dr Myra Cullinane, earned €247,936.

The remuneration for part-time coroners is made up of a basic retainer, intended to cover on-call duty and office expenses, and a fee per case.

According to the Department of Justice, coroners receive €522 for every death certified after a postmortem and inquest, €188 for each death certified after a postmortem, and €129 for every death reported to them.

Mr O’Connell, the coroner for Cork South and West, said the figures are gross and “include the total cost of running an office, paying a secretary and all travelling expenses”.

Galway West coroner Dr MacLoughlin said: “The fees reflect the number of cases. I have no control over the number of cases I do.”

He said the gross amount went towards managing his coroner’s office and included the expense of employing a locum doctor two days each month at his medical practice to allow him to hold inquests.

A spokesman for the Coroners Society of Ireland, Mayo East coroner Pat O’Connor, said: “A coroner is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week . . . 52 weeks per year to deal with reports of sudden deaths in his or her area.”