Dr. Iris Elliott:

I thank the Deputy for his question. We previously had a question on safeguarding. From our point of view, the most important thing is that there is a system that is co-ordinated rather than fragmented. We raised concerns about the fact that safeguarding is often located within the health services even though, as the Deputy rightly says, a lot of safeguarding or abuse issues happen in community settings. Therefore, there is a need for an integrated system of protection. We are concerned that locating safeguarding solely in health means others do not engage and identify what they can contribute.

The other concern with retaining safeguarding within a health construct is that it is a perpetuation of the medicalisation of disability. Any system of safeguarding needs to be human rights and equality compliant. One of the things we will encourage in any forthcoming legislation or policy is that it would need to be considered in pre-legislative scrutiny. IHREC has contributed previously when new institutions have been established. We did a review from a human rights and equality perspective in partnership with the Electoral Commission and Cuan. We are very much open to providing support to the Oireachtas around that.