Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Okay, I apologise and take that back. I was upset because I listened to the Minister of State very positively but then I looked at the bullet points relating to difficulties and one in particular jumped out at me, namely, the assertion that there was no benefit to having a three year plan. That is exactly what is necessary in legislation, that we would have built-in targets and built-in plans so that the Oireachtas would be forced to review, reflect and determine what has been achieved in a given period in terms of implementation. Without that, we are going to have empty legislation. If my use of the term "weasel words" was too strong, I take it back. However, it strikes me that three pages of small print, highlighting obstacles, is not encouraging.

The deaf community deserves a hearing in the Dáil about the daily obstacles that it seeks to overcome. The report from Dr. John Bosco Conama highlights 51 of these, many of which are things that hearing people would not even think about. I will select a few at random. Driving through a take away is not accessible. School tours are not accessible. In waiting rooms when a nurse or staff member is calling for the next client or patient, the deaf person must try to lip read. The list goes on but I will not read them all out. The challenge is for us to help the deaf community to overcome those 51 obstacles and more. We must progress the legislation, give it the thumbs up and tease out the practical difficulties on Committee Stage. Today should be a day of celebration and a day to say sorry because we should have done this before now. We should learn from what happened three years ago when previous legislation was voted down and go forward now.

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