Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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I thank the witnesses for being here today. The shortage of interpreters was raised in the last session. We heard from a young transition year student and also the principal of the Holy Family School for the Deaf about this issue. The school spent €13,000 from its capitation budget to fund interpreters. It seems to be an issue. I would like to know what actions the Department is taking to increase the number of interpreters. Will we see a visible increase in the number of interpreters and in what timeframe will we see that, if it is planned?

My next question relates to the ISL home tuition. Again, it was pointed out by a number of speakers in the previous session that this is not working very well. It is not effective. My concerns lie with the fact that there are only approximately 52 tutors providing the ISL home tuition. What actions will the Department take to improve this service? Has the Department planned a review? Are representatives from the Department speaking to the students who are availing of this tuition, and their families? Is there collaboration and how might that be improved?

My final question relates to the rollout of an ISL curriculum across primary and post primary schools for deaf and hard-of-hearing children. Is that in the pipeline? If it is, when might we see it rolled out? Again, I would assume that there would be collaboration with the experts in the field, such as the NCSE and, indeed, the schools themselves and the principals who have been working in this area for some time.