Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests and thank them for their contributions. This issue is so important. It is clear we need to raise awareness and let people know what safeguarding is. We also need to ensure people will know that everyone has the right to their own advocacy. This shows the importance of the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015 and the need to change the paternalistic culture that exists in Ireland.

The education of our population is critical. Someone made a point earlier about the existing laws. Accountability is very important to me. When something is a criminal offence, it is a criminal offence whether it happens in a congregated setting or not. Moreover, certain laws protect our vulnerable persons. The briefing note we received referred to 444 people who in 2020 had alleged sexual abuse. How many of those allegations have been investigated? Were all the cases given to the Garda, given that it is the obligation under the current law to do so as quickly as possible? Our guests might correct me if I am wrong in respect of the safeguarding legislation, which I might be misreading. I am sure all those alleged sexual abuse cases were immediately sent to the Garda.

To follow up on Senator Seery Kearney's questions, when HIQA instructs an organisation to put in place a plan to mitigate a safeguarding risk, what threshold is used to measure the adequacy of that measure? We do not want only the bare minimum to be applied to deal with an issue. We want to ensure every issue will be implemented in order that the matter will be resolved.

Many of the other questions I had intended to ask have been covered. In the context of our guests as practitioners and the importance of the safeguarding legislation, perhaps we need to enhance our existing legislation and widen its scope. Often, that is the way in which the Department of Justice likes to work. Should we consider adding a Schedule to the Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences Against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 to include more offences and impose higher obligations on people who care for vulnerable adults? As practitioners, what are our guests' opinions on expanding the offence of coercive control? The offence relates only to people who are in an intimate relationship together, but the idea of coercive control covers much of what we are talking about in respect of safeguarding legislation. Now that, thankfully, there is a law in the form of domestic violence legislation, that could be a place where we could add an amendment to include this issue. Should we mainstream our legislation to take in our entire population instead of pigeonholing our vulnerable population with one item of legislation?

One of our guests quite rightly stated the HSE has no authority to enter a private nursing home and ask questions, but HIQA does, I presume. If the HSE fears something is not right in a private nursing home, is there an automatic transfer of knowledge to HIQA to enable it to investigate an alleged breach of good practice and basic human dignity?

I thank our guests. I have learned a lot from the meeting and I look forward to hearing their answers.