Professor Amanda Phelan:

The recurring question here relates to how we change culture. Legislation can change culture. We have seen that in respect of teachers slapping children, people wearing seatbelts and smoking, for example. It can change culture and transform the way we see things because culture is a reflection of our values and beliefs. Discursively, we say we value everybody as a citizen of Ireland but, practically, all animals are equal but some are more equal than others. It is about looking at the hard facts in terms of how we treat people who are risk populations within our group and are marginalised because of that.

We need to put a significant focus on prevention. Much legislation in Ireland has been reactive in nature. We have reacted to scandals and crises and so on and things have happened thereafter. We have an opportunity now to be proactive and to focus on prevention and early intervention. What is needed along with that is changing the way people think. Legislation has a significant focus on that. I trained as a public health nurse when the childcare legislation was being fully enacted in 1995. There was a significant refocus of people's responsibilities because there was then a mandate that one had to respond. The same thing should happen in the context of adult safeguarding. There is also the societal obligation that everybody has a duty of care to other citizens. That is enshrined in Article 41 of the Constitution in particular, which refers to the widowed, the aged and orphans. Regardless of naming different sections of the population, we have a responsibility to look after each other. It is incomprehensible that we seem to be trying to learn the same lessons all the time. The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act is a significant step forward but we are still working under the Lunacy Regulation (Ireland) Act 1871. Members should think about that. The wardship legislation dates from 1871. It is archaic and unsuitable. It is to be hoped that by June, we will have a lot of work done on that. The Government needs to support the decision-making support service to fulfil that obligation to Irish people. We have the advanced healthcare planning. We also need to push out things like powers of attorney such that people can make those decisions when they have decision-making capacity. It is hugely under-used in comparison with the UK.

We have learned from other countries. I led on a report with Mazars that considered safeguarding structures in nine countries around the world and looked at interventions, legislation, policy outcomes and things like that. One can consider what the Office of the Public Advocate does in Australia, for example, or what happens in Canada. I would not pay particular attention to what is happening in Norway because it does not have any structures in responding. Japan has quite an interesting response as the police force there is quite involved in safeguarding. We can learn from those structures. The Child Care Act is founded on the principle of well-being. There are various safeguarding principles that are usually generic in the context of policies on autonomy, self-determination and things like that. There are templates out there. We just need to decide what is suitable for our structure and how we will put it into a process that gets us to the outcome we desire.