Dáil debates

Thursday, 1 May 2025

Report of the Farrelly Commission: Statements

 

4:05 am

Photo of David CullinaneDavid Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)

I welcome that we have an opportunity to debate the commission’s findings. I have spoken to a number of people who care for Grace and an organisation that has cared for her in recent years. She is in my mind today. From the conversations I have had, Grace is now getting very good care. She is a lovely, beautiful person and she is in all of our thoughts today.

The Minister is correct. I sat on the Committee of Public Accounts, which examined this, as did other Members of this House. It was one of the most appalling cases I have ever come across. I listened to the account of the whistleblowers who came before the committee when I was a member and told of the harrowing experience of Grace in that foster home for 20 years. I will never forget hearing some of the really awful accounts coming from those whistleblowers. They were people who came forward and for the first time not only blew the whistle but were prepared to see it through to the end. As we know, they were treated shamefully as well by the State and by those in authority. I commend those brave whistleblowers on coming forward. This was a deeply distressing case but what was most distressing was that so many red flags had been missed over so long. This was the worst case of out of sight, out of mind that I have ever seen. Grace was left in this foster home for 20 years. As the Farrelly commission said, and as the Minister said in her statement, for years on end there were no visits from any social care workers. She was literally left in that home. Despite very serious allegations being raised by other families in relation to Mr. X, yet she was left there.

It was not just the Grace case. Since then, there has been the Emily case. Emily was a female who was brutally raped in a nursing home. Again, there was a report into that case. Again it found shortcomings in safeguarding. There was the Brandon case, which examined and reported on 104 incidents of inappropriate sexual behaviour by a person in that care home. Again, there was a report and recommendations. At the core of all of it is safeguarding. For 12 years of her life when Grace was in that foster home, she was an adult.

11 o’clock

If Grace was still there today, or any person in similar circumstances, as we debate this report they still do not have the legal protections of safeguarding legislation. It still is not in place, despite all of those reports and all we have seen. We still do not have mandatory reporting in respect of allegations of abuse or neglect for adults in care settings. That is absolutely astounding. Deputy McDonald and I have met organisations that have been crying out for safeguarding legislation for years, Care Champions most recently, also the Irish Association of Social Workers, experts. In fact, in the Emily case, there was one safeguarding expert who went public to say there was an attempt by HSE officials to alter the case file. That is what was happening, yet nobody is held to account in any of those cases. Nobody in the HSE or elsewhere has been held to account for the failures in relation to Grace. We cannot mince our words. We cannot do justice to Grace in any five-minute contribution that we have, but we have to acknowledge the failures. There were individual failures where red flags were raised and, I believe, not only missed but ignored by people who should have known and done better. There were systemic problems across this case and many more where institutional accountability has not been accepted. There also has to be political accountability taken by Government. It is shameful that we are debating this today when we still do not have the most robust safeguarding of and protections for adults in care settings. That is on the Oireachtas and on the Government.

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