Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 June 2026
669. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health whether consideration has been given to introducing a statutory mechanism within the professional regulatory framework for health and social care professionals to report systemic or organisational ethical governance breaches affecting safeguarding practice. [46854/26]
View answerStatutory regulation forms part of a system of assurances to mitigate risk posed to the public by the practice of health and social care professions. The mandate of the professional regulators is public protection through regulating individuals; it cannot enforce organisational governance standards or compel system-level changes. However, there are existing processes in place for health and social care professionals to raise concerns in relation to health and social care services.
Regarding adult safeguarding in the health and social care sector, there are currently various structures and processes in place within the health and social care sector, to protect against abuse and ensure prompt action.
The HSE’s National Policy and Procedures for Adult Safeguarding sets out detailed processes and pathways for health and social care staff to raise concerns about abuse or neglect of at-risk adults and Safeguarding and Protection Teams are in place in each Health Region to receive and respond to concerns and to provide advice to services. If it is believed that someone is in immediate danger or that criminal activity has occurred, An Garda Síochána should be contacted.
In order to expand and strengthen the existing supports and protections for adults at risk of abuse in the health and social care sector, on 9 December 2025, Cabinet approved Ireland’s first ever National Policy Framework for Adult Safeguarding in the Health and Social Care sector. Publication of the policy is a commitment in the Programme for Government. The policy framework will apply across all public, private and voluntary health and social care services.
Included are a range of both legislative and non-legislative commitments that will significantly expand and strengthen existing supports and protections for adults at risk of harm across the health and social care sector.
The Government has also approved the development of legislation to underpin these commitments. This legislation will provide:
• that HSE adult safeguarding structures will operate independently and with full authority in the performance of their statutory adult safeguarding functions,
• for the introduction of mandatory reporting where specified persons and/or bodies in the health and social care sector will be required to report concerns or allegations of abuse that meet a defined reportable harm threshold to the HSE’s adult safeguarding structures, and
• for the introduction of mandatory adult safeguarding learning reviews for serious safeguarding incidents, strengthening the current process for independent reviews by the National Independent Review Panel (NIRP) and placing it on a statutory footing.
A number of actions have been progressed to support implementation of the Policy Framework:
• The Department is actively working on preparing a General Scheme of an Adult Safeguarding Bill and it is expected to be published this year.
• The Health Service Executive's (HSE’s) Chief Social Worker is leading the development of an implementation plan for the policy framework to be approved by the Department of Health, which will set out how commitments in the policy will be actioned and delivered.
• An Implementation Oversight Group has been established by the Chief Social Worker to support the development of the implementation plan and to coordinate, monitor and drive delivery of the implementation plan.
• The Department of Health has established a Stakeholder Forum to bring together a wide range of stakeholders to discuss and engage on the implementation of the Policy Framework. The first meeting of the Stakeholder Forum took place on 3 June.
