A dementia sufferer had over €100,000 stolen from his bank account — but gardaí could not act because of gaps in safeguarding legislation, the Oireachtas has been told.
The victim had no capacity to report the crime and agencies representing vulnerable people have told of the “absolute nightmare” of trying to force action in such cases.
The Irish Association of Social Workers and Safeguarding Ireland have warned of widespread neglect and financial abuse of people with disabilities and debilitating conditions.
Safeguarding Ireland chairwoman Patricia Rickard-Clarke pointed out that it is over a year since the Law Reform Commission published recommendations to plug gaps in legislation but that change has not been forthcoming.
The Law Reform Commission had proposed draft safeguarding legislation and pointed to the need for the establishment of an adult safeguarding authority to represent vulnerable people.
Ms Rickard-Clarke emphasised that much of the abuse happens within families, especially financial abuse, with little oversight of who draws down state payments such as pensions.
Fine Gael Cork North Central TD Colm Burke raised the plight of an elderly constituent. The TD said:
Safeguarding Ireland board member Mervyn Taylor emphasised that situations like this are “hugely familiar”, saying that gardaí are often not trained to handle such cases.
“An Garda Síochána, as far as I’m aware, don’t have a safeguarding policy developed as yet,” he said.
Ms Rickard-Clarke said: “The closed nature of nursing homes makes it exceptionally challenging for either residents or staff to speak up and report abuse or inappropriate care.”
Sarah Donnelly, associate professor of social work at University College Dublin, and an adult safeguarding advisor at the Irish Association of Social Workers (IASW), called for awareness of different forms of abuse.
“Our very chequered past history, in terms of Emily, Grace, Brandon, and RTÉ Investigates, is clear evidence that often poor care is constructed as not being institutional abuse,” she said, referring to recent scandals.
She told Senator Nicole Ryan that low staffing levels and bad pay for carers are the “elephant in the room” in discussing reforms.
Ms Donnelly echoed calls from all speakers for a single authority to oversee adult safeguarding. She said:
IASW chief operations officer Caroline Walker Strong queried why nursing home residents are disconnected from outlets such as the GAA and public libraries: “In other jurisdictions, the connection between residents and their local communities are nurtured,” she said.
In response to Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane, the groups said there is some disagreement over how broad mandatory reporting of abuse should be.
They agreed with Law Reform Commission recommendations for specified actions when matters arise.
