Ms Caroline Walker-Strong:

I might be able to answer a couple of points. Culture and accountability are important. It is important for people to be accountable for their behaviour. One of the changes we are calling for is an expansion of the national independent review panel. While that is about accountability and what went wrong, it is also about learnings. We keep ending up in the same place. We had the Emily and Grace cases. We keep coming to the same place and the learnings are being lost. In terms of that culture piece and accountability, it is important to expand the independent review panel.

With regard to the Senator’s question about an independent safeguarding body and what it would do differently, we do not have one mechanism at the moment for looking after adult safeguarding. Safeguarding Ireland covered this issue quite well. While we have a number of State bodies to which a person can report concerns, those State bodies are not speaking to each other. Everyone has one little piece of the jigsaw puzzle but no one has the whole puzzle to put it together and say that a case has reached a certain threshold that goes beyond just a concerned family. We need somewhere where all the information is shared. Safeguarding Ireland also alluded to the sharing of information and data protection. A memorandum of understanding and training on the ground would help to let the HSE staff, members of An Garda Síochána and the staff members working know that they can share this information because it relates to the welfare of a person and arises from the genuine concerns they have, so long as it is not being done maliciously.

When it comes to independent advocacy, I am glad to hear that Safeguarding Ireland agrees with us and would also like regulation around this area, where people who act as representatives for local people are voicing concerns on their behalf. I cannot remember the title the Senator used for the advocates for older people working in her local community.