The Government is to review the law on forensic pathology, according to the Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Ms Mary Wallace.
She told a congress on legal medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons yesterday that there was a need to review the 1962 Coroners Act. "For very many years our state has not given forensic pathology in this country the attention it deserved," she said.
She praised the work of the State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison. "Since January, State Pathology staff have been taken over by my Department and a state-of-the-art laboratory is being built for the service on a site at Beaumont Hospital."
A working group representing the relevant departments has been set up to review the law. Ms Wallace said the need for a review was obvious from the topics to be covered by the congress.
"We need to match these new requirements with an appropriate legislative framework," she said.