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Seanad
‹ An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

Safeguarding disabled people

Summary

Senator Clonan highlighted a report on violence against persons with disabilities in institutions and said Ireland lacks adequate safeguarding legislation for disabled adults.

I wish to raise two issues this morning. First, I would like to refer a report that has been prepared, Violence against Persons with Disabilities in Institutions. This report is about institutions in Ireland. It was funded by the European Fundamental Rights Agency and conducted by Dr. Lucy Michael and Dr. Rosaleen McDonagh. It is a very disturbing report in terms of the safeguarding of adults with intellectual or physical disabilities in community settings or congregated settings. They have no protections. There is no legislation here to provide for safeguarding for these adults. The authors are particularly alarmed that there is no data gathering of incidents of abuse involving disabled citizens. They point to one very disturbing statistic, which is that 71% of the 13,700 individual safeguarding breaches reported to the HSE applied to disabled citizens. The timer is not set, so I might lose my way here.

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