Ms Patricia Rickard-Clarke:

We welcome the invitation to appear before the committee today. I am the chair of Safeguarding Ireland and I am joined by my colleagues Annmarie O’Connor and Ronan Cavanagh.

The national safeguarding committee was established by the HSE in December 2015 in the aftermath of the investigation of the adult abuse issues within the Áras Attracta facility to bring together the views and perspectives of a multi-sectoral group on how the issue of adult safeguarding could be addressed in health and social care services in Ireland under an independent chair. In 2017, the national safeguarding committee evolved into an independent entity, National Safeguarding Ireland CLG, which is a registered charity trading as Safeguarding Ireland.

Safeguarding Ireland’s primary objectives are to promote safeguarding of adults who may be vulnerable; protect them from all forms of abuse by persons, organisations and institutions; and develop a national plan for promoting their welfare. This is achieved by promoting intersectoral collaboration, developing public and professional awareness and education, and undertaking research to inform policy, practice and legislation in the Republic of Ireland. The board of Safeguarding Ireland brings together individuals with extensive experience and expertise in legislation, regulation, policy and practice in the areas of health, social care and finance. Its work is informed by, and delivered in collaboration with, a national safeguarding advisory committee. This is a very significant grouping comprising almost 40 bodies from across a very wide range of sectors and organisations with an extensive national reach.

Under its current strategy, Safeguarding Ireland has focused on three main objectives: the promotion and pursuit of the introduction and enactment of adult safeguarding legislation; the establishment of an independent overarching national safeguarding authority; and raising public and organisational awareness of issues of abuse, neglect and exploitation and of the need for a rights-informed approach to adult safeguarding issues. To support these objectives, in 2022, Safeguarding Ireland published the most comprehensive overview and analysis of adult safeguarding issues in Ireland to date in a discussion paper called Identifying RISKS Sharing RESPONSIBILITIES: The Case for a Comprehensive Approach to Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults, which described the nature of adult abuse in Ireland; the patchwork of legislation that exists to protect people and the deficits in what is known about adult safeguarding; the current policy and legislative response; and importantly, the absence of an overarching governing body to ensure there is accountability, collaboration and coherence across all sectors.

There are many gaps and they include adult safeguarding legislation, social care legislation, and the absence of a uniform regulatory framework covering legislation, policies, accountability and enforcement across all settings. Others include legislation on deprivation of liberty to include a place of care; regulation of home care services; legislative underpinning for the practice of independent advocacy in Ireland; multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral policy on self-neglect; guidance and regulation on data sharing; a comprehensive cross-sectoral framework for data collection on abuse of adults; and departmental and agency policy and related accountability procedures and training for staff outside of health and social care sectors, which applies to all Departments and agencies providing services to adults who may be at risk of harm or abuse. The requirement for policy also extends to the private sector and, in particular, to the providers of essential services such as financial services and utilities. Also necessary is the need for the recognition and criminalisation of coercive control in non-intimate partner relationships; access to legal aid and-or representation; and a single point of contact for any adult who is at risk or who has experience of abuse.

There are vast gaps in the shared and co-ordinated response that is required to effectively empower people to exercise their human rights and to protect themselves, and in the collective national response to preventing harm and abuse.

Despite growing awareness, a culture that is dismissive of certain forms of abuse, that trivialises other forms of abuse and that plays down the human rights of many adults in vulnerable circumstances persists in Ireland. Deep cultural change is requited. Regrettably, it is still the cases of abuse suffered by individuals such as Emily that bring the greatest degree of focus and attention. There have been some positive developments. The big positive is the commencement in April 2023 of the assisted decision-making capacity legislation. In January 2023, the Department of Health re-established the protection of liberty safeguards expert advisory Group. In June 2023, the HSE CEO, Mr. Bernard Gloster, announced the appointment of an external expert to conduct a high-level review of the HSE safeguarding policy procedures and structures and to advise on possible options for the future of safeguarding. The report is expected to issue in the coming weeks. In January 2024, the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, launched the Department of Health's public consultation on policy proposals on adult safeguarding in the health and social care sector, but it is limited to that sector. It is expected that the Law Reform Commission will publish its report on irregularity framework on adult safeguarding imminently.

Safeguarding Ireland cannot anticipate what the landscape may look like when these important policies and reports are published but we are clear that the creation of an adequate legislative foundation is crucial if Ireland is to have a fit-for-purpose safeguarding capability to both address the gaps and deficits I have outlined and to ensure compliance with Article 16 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, where the State has an obligation to accommodate all people with disabilities. The current organisational response is far too fragmented and far from cohesive. There is a need for a national body that can address the issue in a comprehensive and all-encompassing manner and compelling interagency co-operation and collaboration in identifying and responding to abuse of adults at risk. An independent body with overarching responsibility for regulating adult safeguarding generally is a key requirement. A new statutory regulative authority should have at its core the overall goal of zero tolerance in our society of adult abuse, which will be emphasised through the four key pillars which we have stated in our discussion paper, namely, prevention, protection, prosecution and policy co-ordination. I thank the Chair and we are quite happy to answer any questions members may have.