John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

For those Senators who were involved in the practice of old politics, it might take a while to getting around to knowing how to practice the new politics. Some of us were never polluted with the old politics.

There are two wonderful things about this evening's debate. First is the actual debate and the conclusion to it. Second is this last piece, which is not focused on the legislation but rather is about recognising others and the contributions they have made.It is a colour piece about people who have been involved in the process. I will not mention any of those in the Gallery or among Members whose names have already been well acknowledged, but it is important to bring this back to the part people have played with some bit of colour on their lives and backgrounds.

The issue of sign language interpretation arose yesterday and I wish to make a subtle point about it. There was no unwillingness on the part of anybody on the State side, in RTÉ or among those involved in the planning for Ireland's response, when the lack of sign language interpretation was raised as an issue with them. Rather, it was a case of "We never thought of that". I have been informed that as we have been dealing with the Bill this evening, many people from the Irish Sign Language community have been expressing their upset and anger that the Oireachtas is not broadcasting the debate with live interpretation on the Internet or television. I will just leave it at that. While there would be no huge difficulty with getting that to happen, it is the thoughtlessness that screws up people's daily lives again and again. It is not that one will get a row from anybody as to why they cannot do this or that; it is simply that it was just not thought about. The legislation, the UN convention and the strategy being implemented are about putting smacht on all of us involved in public services to ensure we think and think again. The failure to think about simple and practical things is an injury to people who are already well outside the Pale in terms of any easy participation in life.

We have seen the same issue in public transport, as the Minister of State knows. Even where there are accessible bus services and even when there is a day's or two days' notice, the system does not seem to be able to provide an appropriate bus. It is the same torrid issue of simply being forgotten. While I am labouring the point, it is an important one. We often can do things, but fail. We should be very clear that the compromise we are lauding here today is a price people who are deaf pay every single day. Every day, they accept that while it is great that there are certain things they can now do, they must also accept that it is less than what they should have. That is something we must keep in mind. We talk about this from the perspective of what the State can afford and "reasonable cost" for the private provider, but we should flip that and ask about the unreasonable cost and compromise people must still make in their daily lives. We must continually remind ourselves of that aspect. Nevertheless, this remains a joyous occasion because we have moved to another stage. Hopefully, the legislation will get through the other House sooner rather than later and be implemented. In our happiness that we have concluded this well, we must remain conscious that it is not the end point and that there is a still a stretch to go.