Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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267. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of requests his Department received for material to be made available in Braille format in each of the years 2014 to 2016; the number of these requests which were accommodated by his Department; the cost implication and the person or body which provided the translation service. [16381/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department provides funding to the National Braille Production Centre (NBPC) which provides access to educational materials by transcriptions through a range of formats, accessible for children with a visual impairment.

The service facilitates the supply of textbooks in Braille, Large Print and Audio format for blind pupils and visually impaired pupils in primary and post-primary schools throughout the state. An online text book service is also provided.

As well as transcribing educational material for pupils in accordance with their educational needs, the NBPC designs and produces tactile maps and special books for multi-disabled visually impaired pre-school children to encourage sensory stimulation.

In recent years the NBPC has expanded its use of new computerised technologies such as the DAISY, or Digital Accessible Information System, as well as developing an Online Bookshelf, an online download facility for braille and secure DAISY files. This facility allows a child with a visual impairment to independently download the secure file of a book required in a particular accessible format.

My Department currently provides annual funding of €1.28m to the NBPC to meet production and labour costs for all formats.  Additional funding of €55,718 was approved in 2016 for Braille Production Equipment, Digital Support Hardware and Support Software.  Details of orders processed by the NBPC are contained in the following table.