Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 15 is on the duty of public bodies and amendments Nos. 19, 21 to 39, inclusive, and 46 will be taken with it. This is one of the key sections of the Bill. We are creating an obligation on public bodies to provide free services to Irish Sign Language, ISL, users when users are accessing public services and entitlements. This is a very important part. Given the real constraints we face in regard to the availability of qualified people and the cost of providing interpreters who may have to travel at short notice, the Government amendment proposes that the provision of a remote web-based service shall be sufficient to meet the duty of public bodies under this section. The sign language interpreting service, SLIS, provides a remote service which works well and is funded via the Citizens Information Board.

I note Senator Mark Daly seeks to change this provision so that the consent of a user will be required if the service is not to be provided face to face. From our discussions with the deaf community, we know that a remote service may not be suitable in all cases so I am open - I say this very strongly - to considering this suggestion of requiring the user's consent.

I might also mention that in response to concerns raised by the deaf community, the commitments in regard to ISL in the national disability inclusion strategy have been strengthened, and this is something I myself am driving. The new national disability inclusion strategy was published on 14 July. We are meeting regularly and pushing many of these issues. I have already asked every single member of the Cabinet to push the disability issue right across their Departments and they are coming back to me again on 8 December. I wanted to let Members know that work is going on in the background.

In addition to actions providing for the extension of the ISL remote service to evenings and weekends, and supporting this legislation to ensure that all public bodies provide ISL users with free services when accessing or availing of the statutory services, there is a new action which ensures that the sign language service will be resourced to increase the number of trained sign language and deaf interpreters. A quality assurance and registration scheme for interpreters will be established and ongoing professional training and development will be provided for these interpreters. As already announced, I have secured funding for the above actions. The details of the funding to be provided in 2018, year one, will be worked out in dialogue with the SLIS, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and the Citizens Information Board. This will ensure we have sufficient and sufficiently competent people available in order that the public bodies can meet their obligations and that the ISL user and the public body can both be confident that the interpreting service is of high quality. As mentioned, we are aware of situations where this was a disaster. Acceptance of this amendment has been agreed on the basis that we do not need the provision in regard to the establishment of a new public body, as I have mentioned. I commend the amendment to the House.