Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was struck by the Tánaiste's comments on the slow evolution of our thinking around children's rights since Austin Currie first took up that cause in 1994. Last week Members received a wake-up call that we need a similar change of culture in respect of safeguarding adults from abuse. We still have a culture which is often dismissive of such concerns and unwilling to intrude in some of the affairs involved. It points to only one twentieth of the actual cases of abuse of prevalence being reported due to fear of reporting, fear of retaliation, narrow investigative powers by agencies with limited silos to look into these cases and lack of positive responsibilities on bodies to be alert and to safeguard adults. Will the Tánaiste agree to have a cross-Government response to this? It raises difficult issues for new legislation on matters such as coercive control outside of partners, personal autonomy, data sharing necessity which is not being provided for, or access to independent advocacy. It is an area we need to address urgently.

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