Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is nice to finish the year, almost, on a positive note. Like everyone else, I am delighted to see this Bill before the House tonight. There is no doubt that a huge number of people have campaigned on this issue for so long. It was a great shame that it was voted down by the previous Administration. There are over 70 million users of sign language worldwide and after this legislation is passed, Ireland will be among a small group of countries which have given legislative recognition to native sign language. It makes an incredibly nice change for us to be at the forefront of something rather than dragging up the rear as we are so often.

I also very much welcome the Minister of State's announcement about the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. I urge that this happen as soon as possible.

There can be no doubt that this is an historic day. I salute the work of Senator Mark Daly and members of the deaf community, although the issue is also bigger than the deaf community. It is not only about the rights of the deaf community to access public services, which of course should be the case, but also the right of the hearing community to be able to interact with our brothers and sisters in the deaf community. From that point of view, while we can bank this legislation here today, I make no apologies for exercising my prerogative as a legislator to put forward amendments to push this forward further. I know it will not be dealt with today and that is absolutely fine, but on behalf of my friends who are deaf and others in the hearing community, the fact that the State is recognising Irish Sign Language today is great. We will bank that and we will build on it because it is only the start of recognition for people from the deaf community.

I have some concerns because Irish Sign Language is a first language and we should be pronouncing that proudly. It is not just a tool to access public services. It is a first language and it is important that more emphasis be placed on that fact. Deafness is not a disability, it is also a culture and ISL is a language and a vital part of that culture. Most, but not all, deaf people use ISL as their first language. That was not always the case as it was repressed in our school system a long time ago, which inflicted a great deal of damage and it was a wrong inflicted on deaf people. The lack of recognition also had a negative effect in ingraining discrimination against deaf people. We should proudly proclaim today that ISL is an indigenous language. It is unique; it is not a second language to its users and it is not imposed on them by outside forces. It was not invented by an authority or a Department or in a school curriculum, rather it was developed in a holistic fashion and it has evolved through use over generations, just like spoken languages.

It has a grammar, syntax, colloquialisms, dialects and, like all language, it is regulated by the unique culture and heritage of the geographic area from where it comes. Sign languages cannot ever have an international set of visible signals that can be read universally.

I was surprised by the title of the Bill, which is the Recognition of Irish Sign Language for the Deaf Community Bill, and I am glad the Minister is changing it as it is too narrow. The whole country needs to recognise sign language and everybody, deaf and hearing, should recognise that Irish Sign Language, ISL, is a language. As others have said, 5,000 deaf people in Ireland use it as well as hearing people, with a total of over 40,000 users. We should encourage this and I have tabled amendments, though they have been disallowed, to require all the children in our education system to be exposed to ISL. In this way, we can all communicate with each other as brothers and sisters, hearing and deaf.

I have tabled another amendment which I will deal with later on. I am a bit concerned about a narrow approach to ISL as a tool for social services and I made this point when we discussed the report of the justice committee last year. Section 3(1) refers to the right to use Irish Sign Language as a person's native language and to the corresponding duty on all public bodies to provide ISL. While the bodies have such a duty, the language exists regardless of this duty and we should recognise that, rather than confining the provisions to the question of access to services, though that is critically important. It is necessary to ensure that adequate steps are taken to end the marginalisation experienced by members of the deaf community. We, as hearing people, must step up and recognise that the language belongs to all of us and we should encourage other hearing people to learn and access it. Having reached the historic stage of recognising ISL as a language, we need to build on that and ensure it is incorporated in our education system, our health system and all the services we provide. The report published by the justice committee last year stressed the importance of a system of registration and regulation of ISL interpreters, deaf interpreters and ISL teachers and I am glad to see that this is in the Bill. Hopefully, the Department of Education and Skills will also aim for this because it is key in moving this forward.

I welcome the move and congratulate all those involved in this historic day when, at last, we give recognition to ISL. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a process where the deaf community march forward and its members claim their right to equality as equal citizens of Ireland.

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