Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming before us and giving a very enlightened appraisal of the situation.

Two things occurred to me. One was the scale of notifications, which Mr. Healy referred to in his opening statement. In 2016, 8,000 notifications of safeguarding concerns were submitted to the safeguarding teams. To what extent were they investigated adequately and satisfactorily? Was action was taken as a result in every situation?

Is the HSE satisfied that adequate provision can be made to detect abuses on time without necessarily waiting to be told or waiting to receive a report from some quarter? Of the 8,000 notifications of safeguarding concern, I am sure there were other cases that were not notified and need to be detected. To what extent can unannounced inspections be carried out? Are unannounced inspections conducted in all institutions, be it for children, vulnerable adults or others? To what extent is the HSE aware that abuse can be generated by colleagues in the institutions, fellow patients, by staff and by outsiders? Is the HSE representative satisfied that sufficient provisions to identify all such abuses is in place? In particular, we get reports from institutions dealing with older people of cases of bullying but which is abuse; it is mental and sometimes physical abuse from colleagues in the system. It is one of the things that happen.

In respect to Mr. Taylor's submission, has thought been given to the appointment of advocacy officers in the institutions, similar to the officers dealing with requests under freedom of information? Why not have an officer in each institution who has statutory responsibility to ensure that such issues are reported instantly? In other words, a member of the staff would be ear-wigging - for want of a better description - and identifying situations where there might be potential for abuse or cause for concern.

Ms Rickard-Clarke referred to the need for legislation on adult safeguarding. How far can we go in providing the legislation without creating the nanny state and a situation that becomes so administratively involved at every possible level that the system becomes unworkable and does not work at all? Could an individual officer from the staff of all institutions, nursing homes and so on, be given responsibility to identify the potential for abuse, possible abuse, financial abuse and mistreatment of older people? I know the financial institutions have responsibilities but to what extent do they observe their responsibilities? Can we be absolutely certain that they are rigorous in the application of the rules, in so far as the rights of the individual customer, who holds the bank account is concerned? Do they rigorously pursue that to ensure their customer is not the victim of abuse?