Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this matter for discussion and I thank Senator Malcolm Byrne for bringing it forward. When tabling it, the Senator put it forward to the Department of Education, but it was deflected to me in my role as Minister of State with responsibility for disability. It is important to understand that while I will be giving an answer, the true pathway in terms of response lies within the control of the Department of Education.

As the Senator rightly stated, the Irish Sign Language Act 2017 was enacted on 24 December 2017 and commenced by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, on 23 December 2020. I am deeply invested in this legislation. It was the first legislation that the Minister and I signed together and, for that reason, it is important to me that there is complete follow-through.

The Act recognises the rights of users to use ISL as their native language and imposes a duty on all public bodies to provide ISL users with support when availing of statutory entitlements and services. Under section 10 of the Act, a report was commissioned earlier this year on the operation of the Act. The National Disability Authority was commissioned to produce that report, a draft of which I have received. The report notes that further progress is required to fully realise the ambition of the 2017 Act and a number of recommendations are made, which I will consider and pursue, as appropriate. The draft report is being finalised and I expect to be in a position to lay the completed document before this House in the coming weeks. I could not publish the draft at the time I received it because it had to go out to all relevant Departments for observations, the reasons for which I totally understand.

Enabling students with special educational needs, including those students who are deaf or hard of hearing, to receive an education appropriate to their needs is an ongoing priority for this Government. Section 5 of the ISL Act requires the Minister for Education to: establish a scheme for the provision of ISL classes for families of children who are deaf; establish a scheme to provide ISL support for children who are attending school and whose primary language is ISL; ensure that there are a sufficient number of placements for the training of teachers of children who are deaf or hard of hearing; and determine the minimum qualifications of teachers of children who are deaf or hard of hearing, where practicable and necessary, in order to ensure the provision of education to children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

There is work yet to be done to fully realise the ambition behind the Act. Nevertheless, there are supports in place for students. It is important to recognise that elsewhere the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, published a comprehensive review of the SNA scheme on 20 May 2018. The Department has noted the contents of the report, as required under the Act. That report recommends that the ISL qualified assistant should be put in place to support deaf students whose primary language is ISL and that this should be aligned to the requirements of the Act. I am told that the recommendation with regard to the introduction of the Irish language scheme is under consideration in the Department of Education. In plain English, the NCSE has identified this need and the Department is aware of it. This matter has been ongoing since 2017. We have a number of children throughout the country who need this provision. Everything that we do in regard to disabilities has to be about inclusion, integration, participation and equality.Unfortunately, a cohort of young people are marginalised because we are not allowing them to reach their full potential by providing them with the equipment and an individual to support them in participating.