Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to highlight the "RTÉ Investigates" programme that aired a couple of weeks ago on Thursday, 1 July 2021.As we all know, it was a harrowing documentary that shared some of the urgent concerns of care workers, adult safeguarding experts and family members of those who had lost loved ones in a nursing home setting to Covid. It was difficult to watch as, once again, the high levels of neglect in nursing homes throughout the country in the midst of the pandemic when so many people among us needed support and care were highlighted. Again, our institutions failed them in the worst way possible. The programme accurately reflected the severe incidences of neglect that are occurring throughout the country every day.

This is an urgent human rights issue. There is no legislation to prevent abuse and neglect of adults at risk. We cannot allow another programme with such shocking findings to stimulate conversations for a number of days and then, once again, be forgotten. We saw similar findings in 2014 with the "RTÉ Investigates" programme on Áras Attracta. Due to the ongoing media attention in regard to Covid-19, the most recent programme has not gained the necessary media attraction to stimulate engagement on this issue. This is a human rights issue and it needs to be raised repeatedly in this House.

The shocking reality is Covid-19 claimed the lives of more than 2,000 nursing home residents. The programme explored the shocking findings of serious neglect in nursing homes, the failure to provide adequate isolation settings and adequate pandemic health regulations. Covid-positive and Covid-negative residents were placed in the same wards and their breakfast was served at 6.30 a.m. when some residents were still half asleep. The programmers spoke to a brave and grieving woman named Christine Thompson, who is the daughter of Kathleen Thompson, who, tragically, was among 21 residents in a Cork nursing home with 51 beds who were confirmed to have died from the virus during the third wave of the pandemic. A shocking finding in the programme that shook me was a conversation with a whistleblower who was assigned as a care worker during the third wave of the pandemic. She said she had noticed problems during the changing of incontinence pads. She said:

I observed a care worker taking off pads. We would go to each room. The pad was just taken off and another pad was put on. There was no personal care, no washing or anything done.

This horrifying ill-treatment and neglect echoes the equally harrowing findings from the "RTÉ Investigates" programme into Áras Attracta. It is another damning indictment of the State's failure to safeguard adults at risk. The stories are now many and all too familiar.

In 2017, together with former Senator Colette Kelleher and my colleagues in the Civil Engagement Group, I sponsored the Adult Safeguarding Bill 2017, which sought to establish Ireland's first independent safeguarding authority for adults at risk. This Bill provided for a range of measures and mechanisms to address the gaps in our regulatory framework and to ensure no person slips through the cracks. Sadly, it has yet to become law. I am pleased to say I am drafting a new adult safeguarding Bill to be brought forward later this year, having consulted with civil society organisations and experts in the field. I intend to introduce the new Bill on adult safeguarding to provide for robust and effective measures to prevent abuse and neglect, to support people to protect themselves when harm occurs, and to put human rights at the core of our safeguarding framework. Throughout this process, I will be listening carefully to the views and unique perspectives of individuals with lived experiences, their families, front-line social workers and civil society.

I call on the Government to address this issue with the utmost urgency and to take swift and decisive action to ensure the tragic events revealed by the "RTÉ Investigates" programme never happen again. I hope with all my heart the Government will support our efforts to introduce this much-needed legislation.