Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I too welcome the Minister of State back to the House. It is great to see her looking as fit as a fiddle. Best wishes to her on her return.

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this issue. I welcome the representatives from DeafHear and the Irish Deaf Society to the House this evening. There is nothing to disagree with in the motion as it is non-contentious.

It is a little fluffy in the sense that it says we should help people who are hard of hearing and do more for people who are deaf. We need to do a lot more tangible things. The Minister of State has outlined much of the stuff that has been done and all of the positive measures. However, I cannot help thinking that if it was an ethnic group from another country numbering 5,000, the boat would be pushed out further and quicker for those with hearing problems. Of course, we all support the motion.

Senator Mark Daly has worked hard on the Bill and mentioned some aspects of it. We could call it a Government Bill or should do whatever is necessary to get it over the line. While I appreciate there will be a meeting on 4 November that might advance that cause, we should legislate for the full acknowledgment of Irish Sign Language. The State should not offer any service that does not cater for that option. As someone whose mother was substantially deaf in the later stages of her life, I have first-hand experience of the level of isolation she felt as a result of her disability. Even though hearing aids provided for some improvement, it was too late in her life to begin to use Irish Sign Language which she found immensely frustrating. Most of us who can hear were often oblivious to the exclusion she felt.

Whatever costs need to be met, they need to be pushed further up the priority chain. The Minister of State has a difficult job to do with the loaves and fishes in trying to cater for various services, including mental health services and so on. However, we are trying to cater for a very small number of people and ought to be able to do more to ensure the feeling of isolation is kept at bay by providing information in the language through which deaf people choose to communicate.

The Minister of State has made a very comprehensive speech on all that is good. It is the tendency of Ministers in all Governments to come here and tell us how far we have come. When the meeting takes place on 4 November, involving Senators Mark Daly, Martin Conway and other Senators, it is vitally important that we listen to the people who know best - those sitting behind. Rather than telling them how we are doing a good job on their behalf, let them outline for us the specifics in order to provide for them the level of equality to which they are entitled as citizens and for which they naturally yearn. I do not doubt the Minister of State's commitment to the task at hand on any of these issues and ask her to fight the civil servants on this one. Unlike the George Orwell version of equality where some re more equal than others, this time we should ask the people sitting behind me to outline for us the list of things that are most important in improving the acceptability of and access to Irish Sign Language across the country. Let us then get on and do it.