Keith Swanick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I, too, commend Senator Kelleher on the effort she put into this Bill. It is fantastic. Fianna Fáil is happy to support and co-sponsor this Bill which aims to put additional protections in place to protect all adults from the possibility that at some stage in their lives they may be at risk of abuse or harm. I also welcome members of the Support and Advocacy Service for Older People, SAGE, and the National Safeguarding Committee as well as members of Senator Kelleher's family.

This Bill's goal is to ensure cases like Grace, Áras Attracta, with which I would be very familiar in my area, and many others will never happen again. This Bill provides for mandatory reporting by certain professionals and others where an adult has suffered abuse or harm, is suffering abuse or harm or is at risk of suffering abuse or harm. It is important to identity what is meant by abuse and harm. Harm includes assault and sexual and financial abuse. Abuse includes acts, failure to act or neglect which results in a breach of a person's constitutional or legal rights, physical and mental health, dignity or general well-being and may include, ill treatment, intimidation, humiliation as we saw in the Áras Attract programme, overmedication or undermedication, censoring communications, invasion or denial of privacy or denial of access to visitors. In 2014, the RTE "Prime Time Investigates" programme exposed the high levels of abuse of adults in the Áras Attracta setting in Swinford, County Mayo, with which I am very familiar. It heightened the awareness of abuse of adults nationally and solidified the need for comprehensive action and legislative reform. We were all shocked, and certainly I was, at the disgusting behaviour of health professionals on the night of that programme, and I was truly hurt and embarrassed as a health professional to witness what we did on that night. I hope we will never see the likes of it again.

The proposed legislation is informed by the following principles: the promotion of individual physical, mental and emotional well-being, and the right to assistance, support and an independent advocate. We might ask what is an independent advocate. It is important that a person speaks or writes in support or defence of a vulnerable person. That is what an advocate is. Other principles include the right to protection from abuse and neglect; interventions in people's lives must be necessary and appropriate; and there must be respect for people's autonomy in decisions and interventions affecting them.

It is also worth acknowledging that a great deal has been done in recent years. The Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, is now ten years old. The enactment of the Children First Act is another welcome development and improvement. Similarly, the passage of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act is a further manifestation of improving standards. It is to be hoped we will soon see the passage of a disability (miscellaneous provisions) Bill to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as a another positive step. I commend Senator Dolan on all his work in this regard and the Minister, Deputy Harris, on his commitment to reform.

With respect to the HSE's response to the Grace case, one of the most important and significant recommendations of the Conal Devine report was the provision and the implementation of a safeguarding policy for vulnerable adults. The HSE launched a national safeguarding policy for vulnerable adults in 2014, and while the safeguarding policy is currently not supported by legislation, it is a significant development in the protection of vulnerable adults, both those in residential services as well as those living at home. I would welcome that safeguarding being placed on a statutory basis.

I am delighted to lend my support and that of my party to this Bill. I once again commend Senator Kelleher on her hard work on it. Her efforts were Herculean.