Mary Moran (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I also welcome the members of the deaf community and the Irish Deaf Society for this very worthwhile debate. I commend Senator Martin Conway and his Fine Gael colleagues on bringing forward this very important Private Members' motion. I know Senator Cáit Keane has been working in this area for many years and has brought forward very important comments, motions and a speech in recent weeks on this issue.

At the heart of this motion is recognition and inclusion. As has been well established at this point, without legal protection deaf people face uncertain and limited access to society and are exposed to disadvantages in every aspect of their daily lives. A number of Government initiatives are already in place which seek to promote and enhance Irish Sign Language, and these include special schools for the deaf or hearing impaired, who have been encouraged to use sign language in class; funding for an Irish Sign Language weekly home tuition service whereby deaf tutors visit the homes of deaf preschool children and deaf school-going children to provide training in Irish Sign Language for the deaf children, their siblings and parents; and funding is also made available through the Special Education Support Service to enable individual teachers and whole-school staff to undertake courses in Irish Sign Language which are available throughout the country.

As everyone will be aware, the NCSE published policy advice on "The Education of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children in Ireland" in February 2012. As with many disabilities and difficulties, early intervention and well-resourced supports is key. A few of the NCSE recommendations have been implemented to date, including the universal newborn hearing screening programme and information for parents on services available to their children. As with so many things during these difficult years, we could do with more funding and more attention being paid to this area.

As a spokesperson for disability and equality, promoting inclusion of the various different groups in our society is at the fore of my work in the Seanad. I believe one of the most important features of this motion is the attention paid to developing ideas for improved access to public services for users of Irish Sign Language between those in the Irish deaf community and Government and Department representatives. I have insisted on many different issues that the key stakeholders, the people with the most input, should be those who have the most to gain or lose, as the case may be. In the area of special needs education, I have always advocated that parents of children with special needs should have a seat and a loud voice at the discussion table. This situation should be no different. I have never suffered with a hearing impairment so I am not best placed to make decisions, like those in the Gallery. They are the true experts on this subject and their advice and ideas should be seriously taken into account.

As I understand it, a meeting will be held on 14 November 2013 under the national disability strategy implementation plan and this will focus on Irish Sign Language. I look forward to the results of this meeting and I would welcome post-meeting feedback from those interested parties here today.

Every day advocacy groups, organisations and charities are doing more with less to serve their members. As a Government we need to think flexibly and innovatively on this topic. The programme for Government commits to "examine different mechanisms to promote the recognition of Irish Sign Language". While doing research for this speech I learned a great deal more than I had previously known about the issues facing the deaf community and the ways in which we can assist them in achieving equality of access to services and in other areas of life.

I look forward to the outcomes and recommendations of the meeting under the national disability strategy next month and I will continue to work with Government colleagues to address the issues raised here today.

I do not have a hearing impairment. I had not come in contact with those with hearing difficulties until it came to the fore through my involvement with the Special Olympics. One of our athletes from England was fluent in English Sign Language but when he came to Ireland he had to struggle to pick up Irish Sign Language as people here could not understand English Sign Language and he was caught in the middle. This brought to the fore the importance of ensuring that Irish Sign Language is recognised as an official language. One realises the importance of language when one comes in contact with such individual cases. I would welcome feedback from those who continue to work in this area.