Ms Frances Spillane:

As I understand it, Sage is providing a very good advocacy service at present. It has been funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies and the HSE, and a lot of the advocates are very highly trained professionals. In some cases, they are retired people, and they provide a very good advocacy service. However, I think advocacy is an area that is still in development in Ireland. The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 has a reference to advocacy, and it is proposed that, under the Act, codes of practice will be prepared in regard to advocacy services. It is an evolving area at the moment, but certainly there are huge advantages to having advocates working in this area, perhaps more so than expecting a parallel process to what has happened in child protection. Some of the comments that we got from other Departments suggested that approach as well; that of training front-line people who are likely to come across instances of adults at risk, who are vigilant and who have a duty to report, which is the way it went with the guidelines in the child protection area. We will already have all of the interveners under the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 to help older people, or people without capacity to take decisions, or people who are in danger of losing capacity. Equally, I think advocates would play a huge role in helping older people to make sure that their concerns are conveyed properly.

It may be the case that somebody is having difficulty communicating, or that he or she does not know where to go to make the complaint. Yes, I see advocates as a very important component, but it is not an area in which I have a huge background. I know that the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection has an advocacy service, and that is something we are researching at the moment.