Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming here this evening and giving a comprehensive statement on this matter. I thank Senators Conway and Keane for bringing forward this motion. It is welcome.

Everything that I wanted to say has already been said and I just want to touch on two points. First, I thank the Minister of State for taking the initiative she is now taking in this matter. It is not a case of merely sitting around. I note she is decisive on this issue and that she will be taking action on it, and I welcome that.

My recollection is of a good school in Douglas in Cork which deals with young children who are deaf. The year I was lord mayor it was interesting to visit that school. It is one of my fondest memories. In Cork city, the lord mayor visits 102 schools over a six-week time period. The amazing aspect about visiting that school, which has a large number of children who are deaf but also has children who are not deaf, was to see the communication going on. Obviously, they were making comments and these may not have been complimentary of the lord mayor. They were having their own conversation and it was brilliant to see the interaction between them there that morning. It is something that always sticks in my mind from that six weeks of school visits. By the way, my apologies. I welcome all of the representatives from the deaf community and all of the organisations who are here this evening.

An issue I came across two or three years ago relates to the elderly who are deaf. I came across 45 such persons in individual nursing homes across the country where there was no communication available to them within the service and there was no co-ordination about having, for example, a number of them living in the same accommodation. It was not taken into account. I found it quite sad that there was nothing being offered to them and it was like being put in solitary confinement in their nursing home. Every one of them was physically and mentally well, but they just had no one available with whom to communicate. I thought it was sad that we had done very little on that issue. I would ask that the issue be looked at within each HSE area. We have broken it up into a number of different areas. It is something that the HSE should take on board, that where persons who are deaf require nursing home care, we should not automatically put them where they are on their own and we should try to work towards having them together so that they can communicate with one another. It would be helpful. It has been ignored for quite a long time but it is something that we should look at. That is my only point because every other point I wanted to make here has already been made by the previous speakers. I only ask that that would be looked at.

I thank the Senators for bringing forward this and everyone who has contributed to this debate.