Grieving families are being forced to delay funerals because of the increasingly chaotic nature of post-mortem examinations, the Coroners Society of Ireland has said. 

Post-mortems are carried out in HSE mortuaries and performed by consultants, who are paid a fee for each examination. 

On The Claire Byrne Show, Coroners Society of Ireland spokesperson Dr Denis McCauley said the histopathologists who typically carry out the post-mortem are “very busy” at the moment. 

He also feels they can be poorly treated by the system.

 “Occasionally, when they do a post-mortem, they're called to court and they find it very stressful because of the adversarial system, the adversarial way that some of the coroner's courts are run,” he explained. 

“And finally, the fee that they're paid hasn't changed for the last 20 years.”

Dr McCauley added that the system is under particularly “severe pressure” when it comes to organising the post-mortems of young children. 

“There are only two pathologists in Ireland doing post-mortems on children over three months,” he explained. 

“If one of those retires, I don't know if the system will actually survive - and we've been highlighting this for 10 years. 

“And we also have a situation where children, who are babies under three months, who die in Dublin, are being transported needlessly to court to have their postmortems done.” 

A coffin in a church. Picture by: Alamy.

Dr McCauley continued that the service is “on a wing and a prayer” in particular in Waterford, where they organise for histopathologists to fly in once a week from Britain. 

He admitted he is “slightly embarrassed being on air, having to highlight this”, but feels the situation cannot continue. 

“I have a fantastic service in Donegal,” he said. 

“If somebody dies today and they need a postmortem, that will be done tomorrow morning. The body will be released at lunchtime.

“And that's a service that complements the sort of the way that we deal with death in Ireland. 

“But if you die in Dublin, you could wait a week for your postmortem. That is something which is, I don't think, appropriate.” 

Main image: A funeral in rural Ireland. Picture by: Alamy.com.