Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming here. It is great to come into the Seanad after all the work has been done in the years beforehand and be able to say "Well done" on getting this legislation through. This is a delight. I was watching on the screen closely and the Minister of State was doing the exact same as the person signing on the screen and it was very clear.

We talked about hopefully someday having representation in this House and I remember during the Seanad election campaign there was a candidate who was deaf. I was ashamed of myself that when I spoke to that person I was not able to communicate beyond being able to spell out the alphabet. It is not the most practical way to communicate to someone by trying to spell it out. I felt bad and that this was not good enough. I can communicate in Irish, even if it is struggling along through a few words. I thought about what I could do to try and be better, such as always having subtitles on videos and stuff like that.

A couple of Members have spoken about the impact face masks have on people. I downloaded an instant audio-to-text app to my phone so, if I ever meet someone again who I am unable to communicate with, I can hold the phone beside my mouth and, as I am speaking with the mask on, the text will come up across the screen. It is not the same as learning sign language fully but it means I always have that on my phone if needed. I suggest if people want to do that to download an instant audio-to-text app to their phones. It means that one is at least a little prepared while we hopefully go forward and try to learn a bit more sign language. I also downloaded the concise Irish Sign Language app. It was only a couple of euro and it teaches one how to do letters and 1, 2, 3, 4. Hopefully, I will get on better. That was a pitch for two apps and I am not sure if we are allowed to do that. I particularly suggest people download the audio-to-text app to their phones. As long as we have masks, and even beyond that, it is a reasonable thing to do.

Some 5,000 people speak Irish Sign Language and 40,000 use it in their daily communications. That is the same population as Drogheda. For anyone listening in, and everyone here knows how important it is, that is a significant number of people in Ireland for whom this is an important issue. It is important that Irish Sign Language be more widely recognised and we make things accessible, with subtitles on videos, apps on our phones, commitments to go beyond the basics of A, B, C, D and, like the Minister of State, learning to communicate.

The World Federation of the Deaf has a Charter on Sign Language Rights for All. Only four countries have signed up to it so far, namely, Iceland, Venezuela, Colombia and Bolivia. Something we might need to look at as a next step is to get Ireland to sign up to that charter. The basic charter is to demonstrate a country's support for the rights of deaf people to realise their full human rights through sign language. It might be a significant step for this House or the Minister of State to get Ireland to sign up to this charter to demonstrate that we are fully committed to facilitating, understanding and engaging with people and their human rights through their language. It would be great if we were to do that.