Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

I wish to raise the issue of the need for the Minister for Education and Science to reconsider her decision to disband the advisory committee for the deaf and hard of hearing. A letter dated 9 March was sent to the chairperson of the advisory committee which says:

given that the Committee in question has failed to submit a report by the two previous deadlines imposed by my predecessor, I consider it unlikely that the Committee will reach consensus in the near future. Therefore, I regret to advise you that, as indicated by my predecessor Noel Dempsey, I have decided that the Committee should now disband and I request that you forward a copy of all the material produced to date to my Department.

I raise this issue having met the Irish Deaf Society which has serious concerns at the disbandment of this committee. The society accepts the deadlines were not met, but it questions why the committee was not consulted before a letter was sent to the chairperson. The society says it only heard about a week ago that the committee was disbanded.

The position put by the Irish Deaf Society is that it suggested an interim report at an earlier stage, but this was turned down. It also wanted a majority-minority report because the truth is it was not possible to reach agreement on the advisory committee. The society has stressed strongly that the divisions of point of view on the committee did not relate to the deaf community itself, but rather to differences of opinion between the service providers and representatives of the deaf community.

The society has also suggested to me that representatives of the Minister's Department would not facilitate or did not want to have a majority report with a minority report attached and that it was as a result it was decided that the committee would no longer sit. The society has explained that a great deal of work had been done, it would have only taken approximately another six months to complete the work and that it had already set up a sub-committee to compile and edit the final report.

In effect the work was nearly done. I understand 200 submissions were made to the committee and a great deal of work was done over a three-year period. I urge the Minister reconsider this decision, particularly in light of the concern that it appears this tranche of work will be addressed through the National Council for Special Education. I submit that committee will have to start all over again to become acquainted with the issues. It also has much other work to do because it is an new body set up under the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act.

I make this appeal on behalf of the Irish Deaf Society and urge that this issue be reconsidered. The society also made the point that representation on the committee was heavily balanced in favour of service providers as opposed to the deaf community. I know this was changed along the way and that four representatives of the schools were put on it. At the same time, the society felt there was a genuine disagreement that could not be reconciled and that it would be logical in that situation to allow for a majority report with a minority report attached.

There are also concerns that the former Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, had a view that the differences of agreement were within the deaf community but the society argues strongly that this is not the case. It gave me reports from various Dáil debates on the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill that seem to indicate the former Minister's belief. He said:

Unfortunately, the problem has arisen that the attitudes being adopted on both sides of the argument within the deaf community appear to be almost mutually exclusive. . . .

Unfortunately, that committee has twice failed to meet deadlines I set for it to produce its report because both sides of the argument want to totally exclude the other's point of view. The difficulty is that a variety of voices has been raised to represent the deaf community.

However, some people within the community say that is not the case. I urge the Minister to reconsider this decision urgently in the circumstances.

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