40% increase in reports of alleged elder abuse in past two years
A support service claims there is an urgent need for legislation to crack down on elder abuse.
There has been a 40% increase in allegations of physical and psychological abuse towards older persons in the past two years.
New figures show the HSE received nearly 2,300 of these complaints last year.
"There is an Adult Safeguarding Bill that was presented to the Oireachtas in 2017 by Senator Colette Kelleher which was putting forward the need for safeguarding legislation," said Michelle Rooney, from Sage advocacy service.
Ms Rooney said that the bill had broad party support and it needs to be enacted.
According to Ms Rooney, the majority of elder abuse cases go unreported.
"Abuse of older and vulnerable adults is under-reported in this country," she said.
"The statistics that are presented are actually just a snapshot of it and are often focused from the social care division within the HSE.
"Whereas the issues in relation to the abuse of older people is actually much broader than that."
