Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the important matter of Bookshare Ireland, a facility run by the National Council for the Blind of Ireland, NCBI, to allow blind and visually impaired people to access books. It is a facility where books are accessed from various libraries all over the world and shared.By its name, Bookshare means the sharing of books and other texts for people with disabilities such as those who are blind or have a visual impairment or dyslexia. Imagine walking into a bookshop and finding 90% of the shelves empty. Unfortunately, 90% of the books that are available are not accessible to blind and visually impaired people because they are not available in a Braille, audio or digitally accessible format. A number of years ago, the National Council for the Blind set up a database of books from all over the world to increase the number of books available to blind people and those with visual impairments. It has been remarkably successful, particularly for young people in third level education. As somebody who went through the third level system in the 1990s and struggled with text, this Bookshare project would have been incredible had it been available in my day. Thankfully, it is available now.

I acknowledge the former Minister of State with responsibility for higher education, Mary Mitchell O'Connor, who invested initially to set up Bookshare, but the problem is that it needs to be sustainable going forward and there is no funding for it. I have spoken to the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science about this matter on a number of occasions and I know he is committed to ensuring Bookshare is sustainable going forward. I have put down this Commencement matter just give certainty to the thousands of people who use Bookshare daily given that it is so important when it comes to access to information. Access to information and education is a real equaliser and creates level playing pitches but when people do not have access to information, books and written material, the playing pitch is not level. This is a critical project that needs to receive funding from the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.