Ms Patricia Rickard-Clarke:

As regards the Irish Association of Social Workers and the 51,000 concerns reported to the HSE safeguarding teams since they started collecting data, the truth of the matter is that they are limited to the health and social care services. It does not extend even to other HSE facilities, acute hospitals or whatever. We have no national collection of data in relation to adult safeguarding,which is one of the big gaps. Counter to that, in respect of the sharing of information where issues arise, again there is huge confusion abut the possibility of sharing. The GDPR is raised as a defence. In fact the GDPR itself provides that people can share information where the vital interests of the person are at stake, etc. Indeed, we require regulation under the Data Protection Act 2018 as again, in the public interest data can shared. The big gap is that we have no national collection of data across all sectors. As I say, in the HSE, that data is limited.

Coming to An Garda Síochána, we in Safeguarding Ireland have worked with An Garda Síochána over the last number of years. An Garda Síochána does not collect information. Moreover, I know from some of the advocacy bodies that if a person lacks decision-making capacity, that is used as an excuse not to pursue issues that arise in relation to his or her rights. Recently, responsibility for adult safeguarding in the Garda Síochána was transferred to the protection teams and we are hoping for a development on that. We are also hoping that the police and community legislation coming forward will have provision and will develop a need for the collection of data and a process and policies under that.

On the issue of the rights of people with mental health difficulties in the context of medical versus social rights, this is a huge issue even within the assisted decision-making capacity legislation. That legislation is very clear that it is a social model to respect a person's rights to exercise their individual human rights and yet in many cases, the disability tag appears in terms of the medical model. If a person has dementia or has an intellectual disability then rather than, as the Act provides, there being a clear presumption of capacity, straight away people revert to an assumption that the person lacks capacity. So there is a lot of cultural shift to occur in relation to a lot of these matters. As for whether there a need for a reform of the Health Act, the Health Act itself provides that the HSE has a function to protect and promote the welfare of all individuals but we need specific adult care legislation and adult safeguarding legislation. Care legislation would be, as in other jurisdictions, promoting the well-being of individuals, putting in systems and requiring organisations both public and private to have systems in place to promote well-being, to prevent and reduce abuse and to give information to people and advise them as to where they can get assistance. That is the care element and the social care element. Obviously with adult safeguarding you need to take steps to enter into premises, to issue no-contact orders or whatever to protect very vulnerable people if that is necessary and that is where we need the adult safeguarding legislation. The Law Reform Commission is due to publish a very detailed report and our understanding is that report will propose two Bills, one on the criminal law side and the second on the civil law side. It will set out proposals in terms of the regulatory framework we should have in this jurisdiction to deal with adult safeguarding. It is not just a matter of amending the Health Act as we need comprehensive adult safeguarding and care legislation to encompass all sectors.