Public will be ‘complicit’ in abuse if nothing done in response

Irish people will be “complicit” in the Áras Attracta abuse if they do nothing in response to the revelations, and must decide now “if we are going to be silent or act” on the scandal.

That was the claim of the Disability Federation of Ireland chief executive, John Dolan, after revelations about the West of Ireland facility were broadcast on Tuesday night.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Mr Dolan said it was no longer good enough for the problems in residential care homes to be swept under the carpet or hit the headlines before quickly disappearing.

Insisting that the scenes uncovered by RTÉ’s Prime Time put other matters on the political agenda into perspective, he said the hidden cameras put “all of us in that room”, and that “if we don’t act now we’re complicit in allowing that abuse to happen”.

“This isn’t some dusty file, this is footage of exactly what happened and nobody can say they haven’t seen it,” said Mr Dolan.

“That camera put all of us in that room, it was like we were walking past the window as it happened.

“It is now up to us to decide if we are silent people or are we are going to act.

“It was the routine-isation, if that’s a word, of what happened that was most appalling. You don’t need to be inducted or have training to know how to act to others, to be treated and respected with dignity.

“There’s a lot of things going on – water charges and so on – but really this puts all of those things into perspective. I’m calling on every individual to write to somebody, say something to somebody today and show where you stand.”

He was also highly critical of how the situation was allowed to happen more than 20 years after a State group was set up to reform the disability sector.

In November 1993, then taoiseach and tánaiste Albert Reynolds and Dick Spring established the Strategy for Equality to help fast-track vital reforms to an outdate service.

The strategy led to the publication of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities report in October 1996.

While this document has led to a series of reforms in the sector, Mr Dolan said since 2007 the sector has been “fighting to stand still”.

Care facilities such as Áras Attracta are due to be replaced by community-care settings by 2018.

However, a recent Government report said the deadline was likely to be missed, with full reforms unlikely before 2035.