Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am talking about in the South. I am not going to sing a song over here; I just want to make a point about positive ageing and affirming the importance and value of older people, people with disabilities and minorities. This is something that is perhaps lacking in how we deal with these issues in public discourse, in our society and in the way the press deals with them. I do not know if our witnesses have a view on that but I certainly have.

I also want to follow up on a more pertinent question. Systems sometimes work and sometimes they do not. Care of older people in institutional care is a big issue for me. We recently had a case, and I will not go into the details here, where the rape of an older resident occurred and the Garda is now investigating it. There were at least 20 other cases, and in fact 22 cases of physical and-or sexual abuse. The law deals with that. The regulator deals with the regulation. The HSE deals with the situation but we need a vindication of people's rights which I believe are being trampled upon in this situation.

Where does one go to vindicate and how are the rights of those people vindicated outside of the due process of the law? Do we not need a statement from the appropriate body with respect to how evil this is and how our society must change? What role, if any, do our witnesses have in that regard? If the bodies our witnesses represent do not have these roles, to whom should we go?