Speaking at Leaders Questions today in the Dáil, Aontú Leader and Meath West accused the government of eradicating the power of the Office of the Confidential Recipient. An Teachta Tóibín stated:
The Office of the Confidential Recipient was founded in 2014 as a result of the Aras Attrachta abuse scandal. That scandal was exposed by an RTE documentary Called Inside Bungalow 3
Disturbing undercover footage showed vulnerable adults were being mistreated by some staff in a HSE funded service. It showed inhumane and degrading treatment of residents with severe intellectual disabilities at a HSE-run care facility in Co. Mayo. Secretly recorded footage showed staff members slapping, kicking, force-feeding, and physically restraining vulnerable adults, while also subjecting them to psychological abuse such as shouting and demeaning insults.
In the aftermath, several staff members faced criminal prosecutions and convictions, nine were immediately suspended, and the scandal triggered multiple national inquiries by HIQA and the HSE.
In the wake of that scandal safeguarding services and the office of the Confidential recipient was created by the HSE. It was created by the provision of a formal legal delegation from the CEO of the HSE and it gave her the authority and powers vested in in the CEO of the HSE.
The office of the Confidential Recipient was an independent avenue for the public to get issues of wrongdoing resolved. There have been over 1500 formal complaints and thousands of consultations and inquiries. Hundreds of vulnerable have had no other pathway for help and for justice. Today, Tánaiste, shockingly I have to report to the Dáil that the power of the Office of the Confidential recipient is being eradicated.
The Delegation underpinning its power has been set aside. Without the delegation the office has no independent powers.
The new national framework HSE policy for adult safeguarding in the health and social care sector has a serious inherent conflict of interest. The HSE will be its own defacto regulator. The HSE is the primary carer for thousands of vulnerable people in care in their facilities, now they will be the primary investigator of abuse in the health and social care sector. The HSE has made fundamental changes to the operation and function of the Confidential Recipient which in effect eliminates the independence of the HSE’s Confidential Recipient. They have cut the escalation route to the CEO, appointing the HSE Chief Social Worker as the line manager for the Confidential Recipient. Essentially, the HSE has made the Confidential Recipient answerable to the Chief Social Worker on an operational basis. Consequently, the Office is no longer independent.
The HSE has placed the Confidential Recipient in a no-win situation. How can the Confidential Recipient hold the HSE to account on abuse without the independent powers to investigate.
Will you reverse the decision by the HSE and will your return independence to it to investigate.
