Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

The witnesses are all involved in different youth clubs. What if it was available at community level for people interested in, say, ISL? What if that was the platform? There could be Irish language classes in the community. They do not necessarily have to be in the school because there are only a certain number of things that can be fitted in. If there is a problem on the roads, for example, like young people not being able to drive, we will get them to be taught that in school. If there is a problem with drugs in the community, we say we will get them to think about that in school. It is always back to the school, but a lot of it can be solved in the community by involving people at that level. It does not have to be only the young. A person of any age could be interested in sign language. Ms Fleming is right to highlight that we are excluding people by not being able to communicate with them. Like the child I mentioned who was having the SNA taken away, it does not make sense but we do it as a society. I just think the witnesses need to look outside the box as well as just the curriculum.