Dr. John Bosco Conama:

Those questions are relatively easy for me to answer. I could probably go on forever in response to them, but I will try not to. There has been a bias against sign language for historical, political and perhaps religious reasons. An attitude began to develop in the 19th century that sign language was not a real language. Research in Holland and America in the 1960s showed that the linguistic features of sign language are the same as the linguistic features of any language. Such features exist in sign language too.

Since the 1960s, not one piece of research has been produced which indicates that sign languages are not valid languages. Sometimes people suggest that sign languages are unable to deal with abstract concepts and so on, which is not the case either. As a deaf sign language user, I find that spoken languages are more limited in what they can do than the visual language we use.

The Department of Education and Skills allowed the school systems to run in its own way and the idea that prevailed was that if spoken languages were used and if the oral education system was used, deaf people would better integrate in society. The opposite is the case when this occurs.

Mr. Crean referred to a conference that took place in Milan in 1880, at which the removal of sign language from the education system was discussed. Some 210 international educators attended and they thought it was a good idea to get rid of sign language.

On the second question, children should have access to Irish Sign Language at the earliest possible time. If one looks around, one will find classes for baby signs, which are targeted at hearing children who will eventually be able to speak. We do not have the same attitude towards deaf children. Hearing children should learn to sign as early as possible but deaf children should not learn to sign as early as possible. The obvious thing about early access for hearing children is the language processing benefits arising from having access to language. These benefits are also available for deaf children. The answer to the question, therefore, is that children should have access to Irish Sign Language as early as possible.

On the third question, sign languages vary throughout the world. There are approximately 6,000 spoken languages in the world and perhaps 300 or 400 sign languages, depending on the countries. Irish Sign Language is used in the South whereas British Sign Language and Irish Sign Language are used in the North due to historical developments. My experience when I visit other countries is sometimes similar to the experience a hearing person will have when travelling abroad. If one has some familiarity with a language, one can make out bits and pieces, depending on how much one knows beforehand. Sign languages are different, for example, in terms of syntax and structure, different hand shapes and different ways of expressing words may be used. Despite these different linguistic structures, we may be able to catch up and pick up on them. Ms Murray has a point to make on that.