David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)

We are reflecting on the Grace case. We had very lengthy debates in this House over a number of days last week, as the Minister knows. Grace was an adult for 12 years of her time in that home. As we know, she suffered very serious neglect and abuse in that home for a long number of years. As the Minister mentioned, it is not just about the Grace case; we also had the Brandon and Emily cases. We have had far too many cases and reports which have made the same recommendations that we need a much stronger and more robust legal framework with regard to the protection of adults in disability centres, nursing homes and care homes. In fact, whenever the Government gets around to its statutory home care scheme - I do not know when that will ever see the light of day - social care teams will say that there will be a need for safeguarding legislation in that area as well. Policy is all well and fine. I am not in any way dismissing the importance of what is being done by the Minister. Legal frameworks, legal rights of entry and mandatory reporting are very important because in their absence, we have more failures and issues, and we then have tea and sympathy afterwards and reports where we say are sorry and we will look into it and apologise. It is our job to get the legislation right and to ensure we have the most robust legal protections for adults in all care settings. All I am asking for is legislation that will enable that to happen.

See this speech in context