Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In the three years that I have been coming into the Dáil as Minister of State with responsibility for older people, this is one of the most difficult days for me, to come in to discuss the rape of an elderly lady in long-term residential care, her home from home.

I thank Deputy O'Dowd for raising this matter and for his constant advocacy for older people in long-term residential care, which I really appreciate. I am really upset and devastated that "Emily" was failed in this way. She and her family made the difficult decision to seek nursing home care, where she should have been safe but this was not the case. I am thinking of Emily's family, as is everybody, and all the other families who will be traumatised by the issues raised in this report. This has caused huge upset. Today, I want to acknowledge and think of her. It was due, in the main, to the bravery of Emily that the perpetrator of this despicable crime was arrested quickly following the incident, convicted in 2020 and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Our primary focus must be the safety, protection and well-being of those in our care and to reassure them and their families that we are doing all that we can do to safeguard them from harm and abuse. The HSE has commissioned two separate examinations to date, one through the HSE safeguarding structures and one through the national independent review panel. As the HSE has said, both of these processes have identified a number of deeply concerning issues. I welcome the HSE's unequivocal apology for the failures in Emily 's care. I also note and very much welcome the decision of the CEO of the HSE to appoint a safeguarding expert from another jurisdiction to support the HSE's considerations of the issues arising, both in terms of the facility in question and also, importantly, for the wider context of all those we care about. It is important that we allow time for this process to take its course. I am really sorry.

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