Ms Wendy Murray:

Some deaf children obviously need access to Irish Sign Language but so too do some hearing children. Landau-Kleffner Syndrome is a condition where some hearing children, a number of whom I have worked with, start off being able to speak and at around the age of two and a half years their language processing skills deteriorate with regard to spoken language but they are still able to communicate through Irish Sign Language because it works in a different way. I have seen the parents of hearing children lobbying to try to get access to Irish Sign Language for their children. It is amazing to think there are hearing children who, because the focus is different, get so much more access to Irish Sign Language than deaf children. Often, the focus with deaf children is that we should try to get them to speak and when or if the speech does not work or when they "fail" - and I use that word in quotation marks - then that is the point where we can start to allow Irish Sign Language into the picture. It is about waiting until they fail out of the other system. Then the Irish Sign Language becomes something that will do for those children. Some parents want to learn Irish Sign Language for their own benefit. Their children may or may not want to speak a bit, but the parents want to be able to communicate with other deaf people around their children. The idea of waiting until they fail is such a bad way for things to be.

We spoke about the decades ahead. We are already decades into this and I would hate to think of it going even further. I hope members will not forget all of this tomorrow and that we would be able to keep the issue moving forward.