Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is welcome to the House. It is great to see her. She is doing a great job in her role. I thank her for her recent support in helping with a young woman who had an eating disorder. The family is grateful to the Minister of State for her intervention.

I support this Bill's aim to address a long-standing issue affecting business owners and farming families under the fair deal scheme. It is an issue that has been long recognised as needing to be addressed. However, I have some concerns. We have this legislation on the fair deal scheme but there are a number of pressing issues related to nursing homes that it fails to address. There are many broader issues it ignores and we need to look at those issues, including the issue of adult safeguarding. Before I delve into the importance of tackling the urgent human rights violations that occur all over our country at every hour of every day, I will mention a number of issues I have with this Bill specifically.

The Bill fails to tackle the over-reliance on private nursing home care and the tendency to see nursing home care as an investment opportunity and a business, rather than a critical element of the social care system in the country. The over-reliance on the private sector has clearly failed adults at risk in more ways than one. It has led to a situation where nursing homes are largely unregulated and nursing home care has been seen as an opportunity for profit and investment.

The Bill fails to make any attempt to reorientate the social care system towards the community. We agreed through Sláintecare to orient people away from institutional care to services in their community. This is a noteworthy absence.

We have learned many vital lessons during the pandemic. One is that concentrated care of our older people is far from ideal. The reality is not good. The number of deaths is deplorable. By May 2020, nearly 1,000 nursing home residents had passed away from Covid-19, accounting for more than half of all virus-related deaths at the time. When the third wave of Covid-19 peaked in Ireland in January, outbreaks claimed the lives of over 2,000 people in nursing homes. That is more than two thirds of all deaths in nursing homes linked to outbreaks of Covid.

Adults across Ireland are being abused or neglected or both every day. In 2019 alone, the HSE safeguarding and protection teams received more than 12,000 allegations of abuse and neglect. The vast majority of these allegations related to abuse, be it physical, psychological or financial, at 40%, 33% 10%, respectively. The stories are many and all too familiar. They include the harrowing Grace case, concerning a woman with an intellectual disability who was left in a foster home for 20 years despite allegations that she was being sexually abused. Social workers, civil society organisations and academics all agree that legislation is urgently needed to address the gaps in our safeguarding framework and ensure that such tragic events are never repeated. More can and should be done as a matter of urgency.

The "RTÉ Investigates" programme, which aired two weeks ago revealed some shocking evidence of neglect and ill treatment in nursing homes. They spoke to a whistleblower who was sent into Cahercalla nursing home as replacement staff. We heard heartbreaking stories of awful, horrendous neglect. It is inhuman and deeply concerning. We cannot stand back as it continues to occur.Since then, I have progressed my new Adult Safeguarding Bill, which will build on the incredible work and research that Senator Colette Kelleher carried out with dedication during her time in the Seanad. I will bring forward this new Bill with the Civil Engagement Group in the next few months. The Bill will aim to provide for robust and effective measures to prevent abuse and neglect, to support people to protect themselves when harm occurs and to put human rights at the core of our safeguarding framework. Throughout this process, I will listen carefully to the views and unique perspectives of individuals with lived experiences, and their families, front-line social workers and civil society.

I have been in consultation with members of many non-governmental organisations, NGOs, social workers, academics and experts who said that the RTÉ documentary barely scratched the surface of the inhumane treatment of some of the adults at risk in care settings in Ireland, which extends beyond nursing home settings. There are no two ways about it, this is an urgent human rights matter that needs the involvement of everyone in every part of society. The whole of society and the whole of government must come together on this issue to be the voice of the voiceless.

I hope the Minister of State will support this legislation. I apologise that I have to leave the Chamber. I cannot stay as I have another commitment to the RISE Foundation. As I am sure the Minister of State is aware, I facilitate some group work for families whose loved ones are in addiction.