Work starts on centre for pathologist and coroner

WORK HAS begun on a new “medico-legal centre” for the Office of the State Pathologist and the Dublin City Coroner’s Office.

The new facility, at the O’Brien Institute in Marino on Dublin’s northside, will incorporate up-to-date facilities for use in investigations into causes of death, and forensic pathology.

The €13.8 million facility is a joint venture between the Department of Justice and Law Reform and Dublin City Council. It will incorporate two postmortem rooms, laboratories and mortuary facilities for the coroner and staff in the State Pathologists Office.

The new building will be the latest pavilion to sit within a landscape that was once part of the demesne of Lord Charlemont.

The building will actually be in the grounds of the Dublin Fire Brigade Training Centre, which is also in the O’Brien Institute campus.

The centre site is surrounded by a series of walled gardens which discreetly enclose its private functions with a roof landscape.

Lord mayor of Dublin Gerry Breen said the centre would play “a vital role in death investigation and will form an important part of the infrastructure of our country”.

The mayor and Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern turned the first sod on the site yesterday.

Mr Ahern said the building was “a milestone” in the development of a modern, high-technology facility for the State Pathologist and Dublin city coroner.