Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

Both Deputy McHugh and I, with other public representatives in Galway, attended a recent meeting to address the issue that has been kindly accepted for discussion on the Adjournment. We were asked at the meeting to address this issue urgently and separate from the forthcoming general election.

There is an urgent need for the Minister for Education and Science to take such measures as will immediately lead to meeting the needs of hearing impaired children in the Galway area. Such measures must include the restoration of the service which has been suspended for five years and the appointment of two visiting teachers to be notified to schools and parents before the end of the current school year.

There is a further need for the Minister of State with responsibility for children to secure the rights of hearing impaired children in the Galway area, through an instruction to the HSE to recruit an audiological scientist and, if necessary, to fill such a position by immediate, appropriate advertisements in Ireland, Britain and other countries. If the rights of the child are to be vindicated, it will require the action of the Minister of State with responsibility for children to break through any cap that may exist on remuneration and conditions that would enable the post of research audiologist to be filled.

At the recent meeting, it was very moving to hear of parents' experience in this area. I found some aspects of what hearing impaired children must go through to be unsatisfactory and deeply distressing. For a start, there is an excessively long wait for diagnosis. People gave examples of individual cases of a diagnosis taking one year and then having to wait another year for hearing aids. It is appalling that in 2007 the capacity to replace lost or damaged hearing aids does not exist. In one case, there was no programming available for a digital hearing aid. The full-time permanent audiologist who retired in 2002 was not replaced. A visiting teacher for the deaf retired in 2004 and the service fell apart.

Hundreds of children are being deprived of a service. Three years ago it was agreed there was a need for six visiting teachers but there is still no service. Two visiting teachers for hearing impaired children should be appointed and the post for the audiological scientist should be advertised with such conditions as to make it attractive to an applicant.

Research on ensuring children's equality in education and opportunity states that the earlier the intervention, the better the result. The current situation is depriving the children involved of a fundamental learning right and self-development. I do not want a recitation of the work of additional resource teachers being applied in schools. The resource teachers are not trained in this particular area and it is unfair to expect them to deliver a service they do not have the capacity to deliver. Will the Minister discuss with the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, the rights base of taking exceptional measures that will address the fundamental breach of the educational, social and developmental rights of these hearing impaired children?

See this speech in context