Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I also welcome the members of the deaf community. The Irish Deaf Society is my nominating body and I am proud to be their Senator in this Chamber. I welcome Dr. John Bosco Conama, with whom I have worked on the issue of the recognition of Irish Sign Language.

We are in breach of all sorts of agreements. We are in breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Good Friday Agreement and our own Constitution, whereby we would treat all our citizens equally. We are discriminating against Irish citizens because of the fact they are members of the deaf community.

All parties, my own included, have made election promises in regard to the recognition of Irish Sign Language. When we were in government I approached our own Ministers on the issues, yet it got bogged down in official Ireland. The establishment and the Civil Service, not noted for telling us how things can be done, were telling me why it cannot be done. I fear this will not happen until such time as a member of the deaf community takes the Government to court and forces it to do what it has agreed to do under the Good Friday Agreement. We are in breach of that agreement. Despite the fact Irish Sign Language is officially recognised in the North, down here it is not given the same recognition, has not been put on a legislative footing and does not have statutory support. That is not as it should be, as the Minister of State is aware.

We have to consider the consequences for members of the deaf community of the fact we do not recognise Irish Sign Language. It means they do not have access to information, whether citizens' information, information on Government services or information about the Department of Social Protection. It is hard for us to understand how difficult it is to even go about accessing social welfare services when one cannot communicate as other members of the community do, namely, through a glass screen while not having an interpreter available. In addition, there is the issue of education and trying to access educational services. Most importantly and life threatening of all, there is the issue of access to health services. Can one imagine a person trying to communicate with a doctor or a staff member in accident and emergency about their condition and how they are feeling when there is a language barrier between them? With modern technology, an interpreter can be available on a phone in any doctor's surgery or accident and emergency unit. However, that will not be made available until such time as there is official recognition because people will not do it unless they have to and Governments will not act unless they must.

While good will is there, no doubt, until such time as Irish Sign Language is put on an official State footing and until legislation is brought in, we will continue to see the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Good Friday Agreement broken and not implemented. We have legislation available. The Irish Sign Language recognition Bill, which I will make available to all Members, will plug the hole and make sure we are no longer in breach of the Good Friday Agreement. I hope the Minister of State might be available to come back to the House again, and she could give the Bill to the officials to see what we can do in terms of advancing this. I hope all Members would support it and let it go to Committee Stage, and that we would give time for whatever amendments the Government sees fit to include to be included in that legislation, so it can go to the Dáil and be enacted. We would then no longer breach the Good Friday Agreement and the deaf community here would be on the same footing as the deaf community in the North in regard to the issue of Irish Sign Language. We would ensure that all of the people in the Visitors Gallery and the members of the deaf community in Ireland get the recognition for Irish Sign Language that has been promised but has so far not been delivered by this Government or any other Government.