Abuse and neglect in disability care
Clonan continued detailing abuse, restraint, financial exploitation and neglect of disabled people in State-funded care, citing cases of rape and excessive restrictions in services. He said he would introduce safeguarding legislation and sought colleagues’ support.
Thanks very much. Dr. McDonagh and Dr. Michael have identified that a legislative gap in Ireland for safeguarding sets us apart from our European partners. They have said that we really need to put in place adequate legislative supports for safeguarding, particularly for disabled citizens. They have reported on the appalling abuse that is routinely experienced by disabled citizens - I am sorry to use the word "routinely", as I do not mean to be facile - including physical abuse, peer-to-peer abuse, staff abuse, and sexual abuse. I have raised here repeatedly cases of young adult women-----
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-----who have been raped in State-funded care services. I have drawn attention to restrictive practices, such as people being restrained physically or chemically by inappropriately prescribing drugs to sedate them. I have spoken about financial abuse, where the financial affairs of disabled or vulnerable citizens are exploited, and about neglect. I heard this morning on "Morning Ireland" that some HSE facilities have a limit of four continence pads for 24 hours. I am going to introduce safeguarding legislation in this House during this term. I hope that I get the support of my colleagues on this side of the House, but I also hope that, as has been the case in the past, I get support from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Senators and that they co-sponsor this Bill.
I will conclude on a second point. The Minister for Defence, Deputy McEntee, has confirmed there will be no free vote on the deployment of Irish soldiers overseas after the abolition of the triple lock. We have to be very careful about this. The word "peacekeeping" is used over and over again. There will be no peacekeeping missions in our lifetime. It is going to be peace enforcement, which is de facto war fighting, stabilisation forces and coalitions of the willing. The Government is setting its face against the will of the Irish people. We need to have some constitutional guarantee of military neutrality in our Constitution, as they do in Austria and Switzerland. We need to be very careful. I agree with Senator Craughwell that the triple lock, despite the risks, is not the most important thing. The most important thing is investment in the men and women of our Defence Forces. We need to focus on our defence and security capacities