Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Killeen, to the House. This is the Irish Deaf Society's awareness week. The central theme of the week is the quite serious campaign to get recognition for Irish sign language. It is the indigenous language of the deaf community and affects approximately 40,000 people. It is a minority language which has all the attributes of an oral language in terms of complexity and composition. The society has campaigned for this during the 25 years since its foundation. It is high time the Irish Government seriously considered the provision of appropriate recognition for Irish sign language.

Each country has its own sign language and there is no such thing as a universal sign language. They are all different. When the previous Government discussed the provision of certain disability rights in the context of new disability legislation, the disability legislation consultation group recommended that Irish sign language be enshrined in the Constitution. The European Parliament on two occasions in 1988 and 1998 gave recognition in its voting procedures to sign language and recommended that all member states give recognition. While it gives recognition within its own legislative parameters, the principle of subsidiarity applies and, unfortunately, this has not taken place in Ireland. Approximately 45 countries worldwide have formally and legally recognised sign language, 24 of which are in Europe, but the Republic of Ireland is not one of them. It is ironic that the British Government has given recognition to the British sign language and to Irish sign language in Northern Ireland, while the Irish Government has given no recognition to Irish sign language in the Republic.

We have a group of people who speak a minority language who are marginalised because there is no appropriate recognition of that language. It is high time we decided to give appropriate legal recognition to Irish sign language.

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