Tom Brabazon (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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750. To ask the Minister for Health if she has considered the report of the Law Reform Commission of April 2024 “A Regulatory Framework for Adult Safeguarding”; and if she intends to bring forward legislation to establish a National Adult Safeguarding Agency independent of the HSE; and, if so, the timeframe for the enactment of such legislation and the establishment of such an agency. [13657/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Safeguarding at-risk adults against abuse is of paramount importance and is taken very seriously by the Government.

The independent Law Reform Commission published a Report on ‘A Regulatory Framework for Adult Safeguarding’ in April 2024. The Commission’s Report set out comprehensive and wide-ranging recommendations that have relevance across a range of Government Departments, including, but not exclusive to, the Department of Health. One of these recommendations included establishing a statutory Safeguarding Body with a cross-sectoral remit.

The Programme for Government 2025 ‘Securing Ireland’s Future’ includes a commitment relating to all sectors to explore the establishment of a National Safeguarding Body to ensure the health, safety and welfare of vulnerable adults. I anticipate that this Programme for Government commitment will be carefully considered by all relevant Departments in relation to their respective functions.

Separately, the Programme for Government also includes a commitment to publish a national policy on adult safeguarding for the health and social care sector. My Department, in liaison with the Department of Children, Disability and Equality, is at an advanced stage of finalising this policy to further strengthen the existing protections in this sector. It is expected that these sectoral policy proposals will be brought before Government in the coming months and that the preparation of related underpinning legislation will commence thereafter.