Mr. John Sherwin:

I would defer to my colleagues but the Irish Deaf Society would not support grading of deafness. It is very much a medical approach. Our attitude is that any individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing whose preferred language is Irish Sign Language are our members and community who we support. People who become deafened later in life may take more of a medical route although we welcome anyone who, at that point, decides they wish to become part of the culture of the deaf community and learn Irish Sign Language.

The Deputy mentioned the Disability Act. Maybe we were talking about the Irish Sign Language Act rather than the Disability Act when talking about its implementation. There is a National Disability Authority report on the implementation of the Irish Sign Language Act. The report is quite scathing and there is much work to be done there. Our key call is for collaboration with us. To collaborate effectively, we must have core funding to staff that collaboration.

We do not have that at the moment.

There was one last question about how likely is it that deaf people are educated in deaf schools at the moment. I will ask Dr. Bosco Conama to comment on this. My understanding is that many deaf children are mainstreamed at the moment. There is a limit to the number of deaf schools. We do not have any solid research about the outcomes of their mainstreamed education. There is anecdotal evidence that students with cochlear implants, for example, are figuring out too late that they have not fit in and then struggle to reconnect with the deaf community. There is a demand for research to provide some data and evidence on which we can then take action. I ask Dr. Bosco Conama to comment on attendance in schools.