The Law Reform Commission’s (LRC) report on safeguarding ‘at-risk’ adults published yesterday (17 April) proposes the broadening of the offence of coercive control and the introduction of several new criminal offences.

The 1,000-page report on A Regulatory Framework for Adult Safeguarding – the largest report the Commission has ever published – recommends that the offence of coercive control apply to all persons beyond intimate-partner relationships.

The four new criminal offences proposed in the report are:

• Intentional or reckless abuse, neglect, or ill-treatment of a relevant person,
• Exposure of a relevant person to a risk of serious harm or sexual abuse,
• Coercive control of a relevant person, and
• Coercive exploitation of a relevant person.

Draft bills

These offences are defined in the draft Criminal Law (Adult Safeguarding Bill) 2024, one of two draft bills prepared by the commission to coincide with the publication of the report.

The other is the Adult Safeguarding Bill 2024.

The coercive-exploitation offence would criminalise a range of coercive and exploitative behaviours, such as ‘cuckooing’, where a person befriends an at-risk adult and takes over their home to conduct illegal activities or engage in anti-social behaviour.

Speaking at the report launch at Dublin’s Marker Hotel, Attorney General Rossa Fanning described the two draft bills as “very useful draft pieces of legislation”.

“The commission emphasises that the thinking has advanced significantly from the paternalistic notion that we must simply solve these people’s problems.

“On the contrary, it is clear that any legislation must aim to empower and assist, rather than control or direct,” he said.

“This builds on the approach taken under the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 and is reflective of international best practice, whereby the most vulnerable people in society are heard, as well as seen.

“I would suggest that this report is a fine model of the contemplative and considered approach to law reform which Declan Costello [former Attorney General] envisaged 50 years ago when establishing the LRC.”

Independence urged

The draft legislation is part of an overarching safeguarding framework that the LRC is putting forward, which would include the establishment of a social-work-led adult safeguarding body – either as part of the HSE or an independent entity – with a statutory function to promote the health, safety, and welfare of at-risk adults.

During a panel discussion at the launch event, Patricia Rickard-Clarke (chair, Safeguarding Ireland), said that the establishment of a new and fully independent national safeguarding authority was the key requirement anchoring all of the recommendations in the LRC report.

“While Safeguarding Ireland welcomes this report and its recommendations, it has taken since 2017 to get to this point. The Private Members’ Adult Safeguarding Bill 2017 provided for an independent statutory body. The bill was accepted by all political parties, and it was agreed that work needed to be done to put a formal statutory framework in place,” she said.

“In 2018, it went before the Joint Oireachtas Health Committee, which produced a report saying this matter was urgent. The State has not stood up to its obligations in terms of safeguarding at-risk adults. There is a need for immediate focus and early working structures to ensure urgently needed progress.”