Mr. Andrew Geary:

From a support point of view, we have had an interim measure in place since last September, which is providing my son with fully qualified interpreters in the classroom. We have seen an immense improvement in his lexicon and vocabulary and his ability to reach his potential. The new roles are in a settling-in period. Unfortunately, no one has taken up the roles. They have been advertised in a number of geographical areas in the country. We are still dealing with an interim measure which, I must say, is working brilliantly. I have some questions on the remuneration and the terms and conditions attached to the roles. There are eight to ten pages of precise details. These people will not be entitled to educational holidays. They will get public servants' holidays. I have some questions about this but they are for the Department of Education.

With regard to whole family support, it is up to the family to find it. A visiting teacher comes to the home. Ours was a very late diagnosis. Despite the fact that Calum has never heard a sound in his life, he was not diagnosed as deaf until he was well over two years of age. This has been remedied by newborn screening and it will not occur again. At the time, we knew something was wrong and it still took two years for it to be diagnosed. Families have to put in the effort themselves. It is up to them.

I had to do all of the research myself on deaf education. I discovered the work of Professor Marc Marschark of the Rochester Institute of Technology and, by coincidence, he came here in the late noughties. He wrote an important research paper. In telephone conversations with me he questioned the fact that he never got to speak to signing parents of deaf children. These are parents who went out and learned to sign proficiently so that they knew what level of sign was going on in the classroom environment. Weekends on newborn diagnosis were put together by the charities which are the backbone of what goes on in the deaf education sector. Our charities, community workers and carers are what we base our entire functional democracy on in this area.