Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)

I commend the Labour Party on its motion. We fully support it. It has been an honour to meet in recent weeks with Safeguarding Ireland, Care Champions, and the Irish Association of Social Workers to discuss adult safeguarding and systemic problems within our nursing home sector and other care facilities. I look forward to engaging with Inclusion Ireland, Sage Advocacy and others to this end in the coming weeks and months.

There is consensus among the advocacy groups that the Law Reform Commission report into adult safeguarding, published last year, is the roadmap that we need to follow to implement comprehensive adult safeguarding legislation and to establish a national safeguarding authority. It is worth mentioning that, following the Farrelly commission report, a lot of commentary reflected on the fact that the commission of inquiry was extremely expensive, did not produce clear recommendations and was very unsatisfactory in many ways. If we had a national safeguarding authority, it would greatly reduce, if not entirely eliminate, the need for these commissions and tribunals. It would have a safeguarding focus in how it conducts investigations.

Safeguarding Ireland has highlighted that the Bill currently proposed by the Government in its legislative agenda is too narrow in scope and would be a missed opportunity if pursued. It is vital, therefore, that we go back to the Law Reform Commission's report.

The recent "RTÉ Investigates" programme, which brought adult safeguarding back into sharp focus, documented appalling standards of care at two nursing homes that form part of one of the largest private for-profit care providers in the State. It was chilling and terribly sad to witness the casual neglect of and repeated insults to the dignity of those nursing home residents. Profiteering and the care for some of our most vulnerable citizens do not go hand in hand. A major overhaul of our care system is needed.

The "RTÉ Investigates" programme documented abject failures to respect the basic care needs and dignity of nursing home residents as an everyday occurrence. These are yet more examples of how our care system is failing vulnerable adults and is subject to poor oversight, a lack of mandatory reporting structures and weak enforcement powers. While the content of the programme was shocking, many people were not surprised by these patterns of mistreatment. These patterns are likely not isolated to this particular nursing home provider. For me, a stand-out moment of the "RTÉ Investigates" programme was when the more experienced care assistant advised a colleague that she too had notions of a better system at the outset of her career. She said:

I know you feel sorry and I feel sorry for everybody here. They do not go out, the activities are shit, all this system is shit, you understand, but this is how it is, you know. Ours is just to do our job and to go home. I wouldn't put my mother here, even if it was my last breath.

That exchange captured how basic empathy can gradually break down in a service that is under so much strain, where there are not enough staff to share the workload and where items for attending to the basic care needs of residents are not provided. We cannot let a sense of inevitability set in that this is just how it is now for elder care.

The need for comprehensive adult safeguarding legislation has been repeatedly raised by the interest groups I mentioned.

It has been highlighted in particular following the Leas Cross scandal 20 years ago, the Áras Attracta scandal in 2014 and the Brandon, Grace and Emily cases, and the Government has failed to act. Unlike with child protection, there is no single, comprehensive adult safeguarding law in Ireland. Instead, adult safeguarding relies on a patchwork of legislation, policy documents and fragmented departmental responsibilities. There does not appear to be an ideological barrier that I can identify to explain why the necessary legislation has not been pursued. The only conclusion I can draw is that successive Governments have neglected this area because they have not felt sufficient political heat on the matter. It is incumbent on all of us to ensure that it retains the focus it currently has.

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