Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Rickard-Clarke, Ms O'Connor and Mr. Cavanagh for coming in today. We appreciate the great work Safeguarding Ireland has done since it was established following issues in December 2015. I have a few questions. The Irish Association of Social Workers has highlighted that 51,000 concerns about the abuse and neglect of adults have been reported to the safeguarding and protection social work teams since 2015. However, it seems unknown as to how many of these relate to people with disabilities. We have also established that An Garda Síochána cannot provide figures about the rate of abuse and neglect of residents in nursing homes or disability centres reported to it. Can the witnesses discuss the under-reporting of safeguarding issues and immediate action to improve and standardise reporting, as well as the lack of redress?

Also, what measures are needed to ensure that An Garda Síochána can provide figures about the rates of abuse and neglect of residents in nursing homes or disability centres reported to it? At this committee Professor Brendan Kelly stated that Ireland is failing to safeguard rights for people with severe mental illness such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and that these failings while not deliberate, are widespread, systematic, predictable and preventable. Can the witnesses discuss, in terms of the medical versus social human rights model of disability, what safeguarding provisions would look like with regard to social and medical well-being? Is there a need to reform the Health Act 2007 and associated regulations in parallel? That Act contains a narrow definition of "designated centre" that limits regulatory protection for people with a disability to the confines of the centre's footprint.