John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I formally second the Bill. More than 100 years ago we gave asylum, in the best sense of the word, to people to protect them - people with mental health issues in the mental hospitals, people with other issues, the deaf and the dumb as people were referred to, those who were blind, and those who were regarded as imbeciles. The cost of that protection was to be apart and sundered from the society they came from, to be forever outside. They were in a micro-community in those hospitals and other places. Just as in so many other areas such as communication, transport and medicine, there have been phenomenal changes over the past 100 or indeed 50 years. We put safeguards in place, develop mandatory standards, legislation and regulations, and we police them. Maybe we do not do that as well as we should but we have methods for doing that. There is data protection for people. Transport and vehicle standards and road and infrastructure standards have improved. In the medical area blood tests were not routine 30 or 40 years ago but they are now. We almost ask for the ones we want. In respect of blood transfusions approximately 30 years ago a Government precipitated a general election as a consequence of contaminated blood being provided by the State to people. We know the number of deaths that caused.Now, more and more, people who are, who have or who will have vulnerabilities live in the community. Those of us in the State are actively working to ensure people can move to or stay living in the community. We need a range of instruments to support them effectively.

I commend Senator Kelleher on bringing this Bill forward and I am honoured that she has asked me to second it. I want to make two pertinent points about Senator Kelleher. She has worked with the Cork Simon Community. She worked in the Cope Foundation for several years. She has worked in the Alzheimer Society of Ireland. Need we say more about someone who has felt, smelt and seen vulnerability in people, in our brothers and sisters? The other point I want to make relates to her general approach. She knows intimately the need for such legislation. She has clearly said this Bill is open to being improved and that she is open to it being improved. Having listened to and been close to people in vulnerable situations over many years, she has constructed this Bill and now she lays it before us all for further input into it and with the intention of approving it. I am asking every Member to engage with this reasonable, important and necessary legislative development to improve and pass it with the full support of the House. I can add my experience from across the gamut of disability and mental health issues for many years. I can say easily and in a relaxed way that this legislation is badly needed.

As a developed society, for the past quarter of a century, in particular, we have been forced to examine our own lapses in the provision of services and supports. I will not set out the litany, but we still have these lapses with us. We have seen our systems built too strongly on the twin pillars of trust and lack of ambition for people's lives. Consequently, we must know truly in our hearts that we need a body of safeguards. This Bill is an important element in this regard. It will also have a powerful and vital element in changing mindsets about people. That is crucial. Sometimes the measures will have to drag people to change their mindset, but I hope that will not always be the case. There is a good balance of carrot and stick in the Bill. Every person is vulnerable and everyone merits the dignity that the protection in the Bill would bring.

Another point is important. There is no group or class of people who are vulnerable adults or who are vulnerable by virtue of any category. Sadly, some people come into this world in a vulnerable situation and remain vulnerable for their lives, whatever the length. This Bill is about the universal condition of vulnerability. We have lessened vulnerability for some people in some components of their lives because of the actions we have taken, for example, the marriage equality legislation. Many instruments are needed, including this legislation. At some point in our lives, as individuals, we are all vulnerable. Let us consider the years of recession when we saw loss of jobs, homes and families. Other examples include marital break-up and life-changing illness or disability. When my nearest and dearest are vulnerable, I am vulnerable. Vulnerability can arise through neglect, mistreatment or the infliction of harm. It can come from being seen as a lesser person or a less valuable human being and can derive through age or other changed circumstances.

Some of us manage to muddle through with the support of empowering friends and contacts or with the love of other people who are close to us as well as the love of some people who we had thought were not close to us. Sadly, these natural supports are not always available to us. We are not always allied with supporters and advocates who can put manners on the relevant person or entities. That is why we need this legislation. This Bill is one of the necessary modern methods to be able to provide protection. It is needed so that people can live freely in the community. The ultimate prize is to have people being protected and safeguarded as and when necessary in order that they can have good lives in the community and so that they can thrive and flourish.