Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Mark Daly for bringing the Bill before the House. I am delighted to be here on the second or third occasion it is debated and to, hopefully, see it pass. I would also like to thank Dr. John Bosco Conama and everyone from the Centre for Deaf Studies in Trinity College for their work on this Bill and their ongoing dedication to fighting for equality for the deaf community.

For the approximately 5,000 deaf people in Ireland, the lack of language recognition has had the effect of ingraining discrimination into their everyday lives. It has exacerbated the problems of isolation for most. We saw earlier this year a court in Donegal proceed with a case when the defendant was deaf and had no interpreter present.We would be up in arms about that situation if it happened to one of our citizens facing court proceedings abroad where they did not understand the native language. Here in this State we allow such an obvious violation of a person's human rights to take place.

Unfortunately, those inequalities exist throughout the State, in our health system and in our education services. The incredibly sad deaths of Daniel and William McCarthy earlier this month, tragically brought to the fore the extent of the social isolation endured by members of the deaf community. I have spoken about this recently in Trinity College Dublin, and I feel the need to say it again as a community development worker. If someone like a community development worker never made the effort to communicate at all with those two brothers, in their very small community of Bluebell, then what chance do other people have? Their own community services did not recognise them. People who have disabilities are more likely to experience income poverty than the rest of society.

Among the deaf community those statistics speak for themselves. People who are deaf have significantly lower employment expectations with only 40% in employment, well below society's average. Those who are employed are likely to be paid low wages, they are significantly less likely to go to college and in many cases have low life expectancy. As it stands, service providers are under no obligation to recognise sign language. Children who are deaf do not have the right to education through Irish Sign Language. There are no automatic rights to interpreters and the Government has continuously failed to recognise the rights of children who are deaf, under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Under Article 2 of the convention, children are entitled to access all the rights of the convention without discrimination. In Ireland, however, children who are deaf are being indirectly discriminated against as they are not guaranteed access to the curriculum through the medium of Irish Sign Language, their first language. This means the child cannot always fully participate in and benefit from education, their language and cultural needs are unmet and the children are hindered in achieving educational outcomes on a par with their hearing peers. Ireland is just one of three countries in Europe yet to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability. The Minister of State with responsibility for disability issues, Deputy Finian McGrath has given a commitment to address this and I hope he does so without delay so Ireland can join the other 167 countries that have ratified the convention.

Hearing people need to shift their focus from thinking of deafness as a purely medical phenomenon and we need to attempt to understand that there is a culture and a language that we have ignored and that deafness becomes problematic because of the discrimination inflicted by society. If Irish Sign Language is viewed as a minority language rather than as a disability it will help us to understand it better. 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.

It is perhaps because those 5,000 people are spread across the State they have not been a powerful enough lobby group to make politicians care about their issues, but that should not be our motivation. We should be motivated to do the right thing. Suppressing their right to self expression is an attack on their human rights. We need to stop discriminating against these citizens and ensure they are given the same rights as everyone else. The lack of language recognition has led to the disempowering of one of the most socially excluded groups in the country. We have the chance now to take a stride forward by recognising Irish Sign Language and by ensuring that all children who are deaf have access to education through sign language. We should also be teaching basic sign language to hearing children at school. This could have huge long-term benefits in terms of social inclusion for the deaf community.

I welcome the Bill. The Civil Engagement group and I will be voting in favour of Irish Sign Language recognition. I urge all of our colleagues to do so too.