Ms Elaine Grehan:

We mentioned building confidence earlier. We are talking about identity and the feeling that if you are deaf or hard of hearing, you are labelled or there is a certain stigma attached to that. A lot of people in the deaf community have those kinds of identity issues because when they grow up, they are trained to be like a hearing person or not to sign. It can be quite difficult, growing up, when you are struggling with that kind of identity and trying to accept it, and when there is an attitude in society where people possibly look down on deaf people, patronise them or think it is something they need to solve.

The IDS has an advocacy service to empower deaf people to develop their own identity, to embrace and be proud of being deaf and hard of hearing, and to say they want to sign. It is important to empower them through translation and education, so that they can accept their identity. We would be happy to engage with the young man the Deputy mentioned. There is a Pobal career project, and hopefully we will have more funding in the future to assist us in our work to help deaf people become better trained for job skills or to gain better employment. As Dr. Conama mentioned, it could be that a person has been out of work, has a degree but does not have work experience to match that degree, is overqualified or has not had the opportunity to really excel in the workplace. It is important to build that confidence to make sure they know they can achieve. Often, there is an attitude that because a person is deaf, he or she cannot do this or that. It is important to make sure we are there to guide and teach them how to build those skills and that confidence. We are also there to let employers know that deaf or hard-of-hearing people can work in the workplace. It is important that those who are hard of hearing and who have never engaged with the deaf community before and have only ever been mainstreamed know those services are available for them within the community.