Ms Elaine Grehan:

I would like to mention learning social skills, which are so important. When you are in the deaf school, you learn through ISL and you get support - you may have a special needs assistant, SNA. When you are in mainstream education, you do not learn those skills - you depend on an SNA and do not learn everything through ISL. The social part is important, for example, playing in the playground, the social parts of the day and having those kinds of relationships when you are building those friendships as a teenager. That is why it is so important to have those opportunities. It is quite different when a deaf student is actually involved in the deaf community in the deaf school - they have those opportunities. It is important to have free classes for hard-of-hearing students so that they can learn ISL. It was mentioned that when someone becomes deafened later in life, that is their moment to actually learn ISL or sign language. Those people can then have the opportunity to come and be involved with us in the deaf community in the Irish Deaf Society. For example, some 60 or 70-year-olds who become deafened in later life are in a situation in which they have to learn ISL and come to us in the IDS. Many say they wish they learned it earlier or in school. They wish they had the opportunity earlier in life but it is simply not there.