The Irish Independent's View: Great shame we do not have the legislation needed to underpin vital care of older people
One of the critical failings exposed then was the complete lack of focus in government agencies towards meeting the complex needs of older people.
Then as now, they remain the key adult demographic for health and social care services. To hear two decades later that patients can still be badly mistreated, having their dignity and most basic needs ignored, is a terrible indictment of the State's commitment to the care of the very people who served it all their lives.
Mr O'Donnell said there is a commitment for a national policy on safeguarding for adults in the Programme for Government and he wants this brought to the Cabinet before the summer recess.
Most people will be astonished such a policy is not in place to protect people who may be vulnerable. Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan has said the Government is committed to developing the policy.
But what does it say about respect for our people that such critical protections have not already been built into the infrastructure of care?
Unless agencies have the necessary legal powers to enforce compliance, the potential for abuse will continue
'Even if there is one person being abused, that is a serious incident that should be followed up immediately,' said Safeguarding Ireland chairperson Patricia Rickard-Clarke. She appealed to the Government to implement the recommendations of the Law Reform Commission's report from last year. This would put a critical legal framework in place, she said.
Former INMO chief Liam Doran said he felt shame, sadness, frustration and anger over the revelations in the RTÉ report.
'Looking at people who have served this country, have worked for this country and have shown fortitude much more than the modern generation, and that's how we treat them. Shame, shame on all of us,' he said.
We have waited too long for the vital legislation needed to underpin the care of older people. Unless agencies have the necessary legal powers to enforce compliance, the potential for abuse will continue.
Seán Moynihan of charity Alone has expressed fears that Ireland is 'walking into the privatisation of nursing homes', where economics seems more important than the rights of the older person.
For older people to be left frightened by institutional failings is indefensible. German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer wrote: 'The first 40 years of life give us the text – the next 30 supply the commentary on it.'
And what a sad commentary it is on our society that once again we have been found wanting when it comes to taking care of our older citizens.
There are no excuses and no exceptions, for as the poet Gertrude Stein put it: 'We are always the same age inside.'
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