Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I really hope that this Oireachtas will not make the same mistake. Even by being here today and discussing the committee's report, we are raising consciousness of the issues. Talking about people as customers is the wrong way to deal with this. We are talking about citizens accessing public services as a right and for the 5,000 deaf people in Ireland, the lack of recognition of Irish Sign Language has had the effect of ingraining discrimination into everyday life and has exacerbated their isolation. This was sadly highlighted recently with the death of the McCarthy brothers, as Deputy Ó Caoláin correctly pointed out. We know the statistics already. Deaf people have a low employment expectation, with only 40% in employment, mostly in low-paid jobs. Large numbers of our deaf community are excluded and we could spend a lot of time talking about the areas of exclusion. The report highlights, for example, the need to have interpreters in judicial proceedings. Earlier this year in a court in Donegal a judge decided to proceed with a case in the absence of an interpreter even though the defendant was deaf. We would not tolerate a language interpreter not being provided for a person from another jurisdiction but such a barrier was allowed to prevail for a deaf person. Such inequalities exist throughout the State in terms of other service provision.

The report focuses on the fact that Irish Sign Language, which is formally recognised in Northern Ireland, should also be formally recognised in the South where there are actually more users. The example of Finland has been given, which has a deaf community roughly the same size as ours. That country formally recognised Finnish Sign Language in 1995.

I wish to pick up on some of the points made by Deputy Catherine Connolly. As far as I am concerned, the most important aspect of the report is the recognition of Irish Sign Language as a language and the need for us to educate ourselves as to what that means. Clause 4 of the Bill moved by Senator Mark Daly last month in the Seanad goes to the heart of this issue.

We are talking about a language in its own right. It is not a substitute, a tool for disability or a tool to access public services. If we take that approach, we will downgrade the language and have a poorer outcome for users and future users.

Our starting point in the committee report is that ISL is a language in its own right and lack of access to language creates barriers. It would be a very important step forward if we were to recognise that. In the past, we have had some awful situations. Many children were abused in the history of our State but sign language was actually denied and even discouraged in the case of deaf children. We have heard stories of deaf children having their hands tied behind their backs to force them to stop signing - to force them into a verbal language. This was crazy. We spoke to Deputy Shortall on the way over. She was a trained teacher who taught in schools for deaf children and was prevented from learning sign language because the State discouraged its use. We must say that this caused lifelong communication problems for deaf people and their families. It was a horrible part of our history and one that we should learn from and not repeat. Like any other language, the learning of sign language needs to be developed as early as possible. We do not wait until our children are teenagers or adults before we expose them to language and deaf children should be treated the same as hearing children in that regard.

We should point out that deafness can last a lifetime but it may not. It may be something that people develop in the course of their lives. Very young children below school age and older citizens can become deaf so it is not just about accessing ISL in school or work hours or accessing social welfare. It is more about a system of accessing a language.

As hearing people, we must shift our focus from thinking of deafness as a kind of medical phenomenon and attempt to understand that there is a culture and language that we have ignored and that this is what has caused the problem. Senator Ruane made a very good and relevant contribution in the Seanad debate when she said:

When people who are deaf gather together, for example in the deaf village in Cabra, there is no communication barrier and no discrimination. It is only when they leave that setting that their language becomes a problem or a disability because we have not catered for their inclusion. We make their language a disability.

That sums it up for me very well.

A total of 80% of deaf adults have a low level of literacy in the English language and while we need to achieve higher rates of subtitling, etc., on television, we must understand that written English is not the first language of deaf people. Subtitles are very good but we must do more. The training and proper scrutiny of ISL interpreters and their broadened availability is critically important. Other Deputies have spoken about the scenarios people are left in without language. Earlier this year, the Department of Social Protection brought out a new card that could only be activated over the phone meaning that a deaf person had to give their private information, password details and so on to a hearing person so that the card could be activated. It is a lack of thought and consciousness. Deputies have made other points about visits to doctors and so on and said that having a third party involved in one's most intimate and private contacts with doctors is completely unacceptable.

In respect of the services provided by our national broadcaster, the target of providing 2% of television shows with ISL interpretation is insultingly low and indicative of the lack of focus on this. The cancellation of the "Hands On" television programme is something the deaf community feel badly about. The use of interpreters on RTE is low. It is late at night. We need to make that more accessible. I echo the point that we have a small deaf community in Ireland which is, in essence, living in a world where nobody else speaks its language. Governments have not invested the amount of money necessary to rectify and change its quality of life. We are going to be given that opportunity in the course of this Dáil thanks to the fact that the Bill has gone through Second Stage in the Seanad. I hope we will not be found wanting this time around.

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