Mr. Reinhard Schäler:

I do not have much information to add in response to the questions asked, but I emphasise that neither myself nor Mr. Grogan are the only ones. There are 28 people in our centre and most of them have very similar stories. The story of one family, the Muldoons from Limerick, is that their son was brought to a place in north Dublin. They complained about the service. Members might remember a "Prime Time Investigates" programme about Patrick Fitzgerald. His wife had a brain injury and she was placed in a home. When he complained, he was subsequently prevented from seeing his wife. When he was allowed to visit, it was for an hour and a security guard knocked on the door and told him when it was time for him to leave. A similar issue arose in relation to a woman who had a son in Dublin. She complained about the services and her son was swiftly made a ward of court, which wrote her out of the equation altogether. She had to visit him in Dublin but she did not have the money to go there. The whole family was broken up.

They are heartbreaking stories. This is not something that should happen in 21st century Ireland. It sounds medieval. I am German by origin and I have been living here for 34 years, longer than I ever lived in Germany, but I know my German history. People closed their eyes when terrible things happened. To my mind, the comparisons are difficult to make, but you know when something is fundamentally wrong. People are forgotten about. They are locked up somewhere and not seen. Some of our clients have issues going out because they are afraid to be looked at and seen. They are not integrated into society. That is still happening. We know it is happening. We cannot say we do not know about it. People are left behind, ignored, and literally written off. That is happening in front of our eyes. We cannot allow it to happen. We have an opportunity to change it. It is up to us to do something about it. It is similar for people with other conditions, but the service must reach the people who need it first and not stop when it gets to them because they are not worth it. People have rights. It is not just clinical considerations; it is also human rights issues that must be looked at.