Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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509. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will report on the extension of the hours of a service (details supplied) to evenings and weekends; the number of additional hours provided for both evenings and weekends to date in 2018; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38868/18]

Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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510. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the additional resources provided in 2018 for a charity (details supplied); and the increase in the number of trained sign language and deaf interpreters resulting from such additional resources. [38869/18]

Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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511. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will report on the provision of a quality assurance and registration scheme for sign language and deaf interpreters. [38870/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 509 to 511, inclusive, together.

The Sign Language Interpreting Service (SLIS), which is funded and supported by the Citizens Information Board, (CIB) is the national service for the development, promotion and delivery of sign language interpreting services to the Deaf community in Ireland.

CIB has allocated a budget of €676,000 to SLIS for 2018. This includes over €300,000 in additional funds to expand its activities in order to deliver on the commitments set out in the National Disability Inclusion Strategy 2017 – 2021.

To date, four additional permanent part-time interpreters and a part time Administrator have been recruited to work, which has allowed for the extension of service hours. Its hours of operation were extended to evenings and weekends on a phased basis from 1 March, 2018 to 1 September, 2018. As of beginning September, the opening hours of the IRIS service have been extended by 18 hours per week. The additional hours are as follows

9.00 to 9.30 (Mon to Friday)

13.00 to 14.00 (Mon to Friday)

17.00 to 18.30 (Mon to Friday)

10.00 to 13.00 (Saturday)

A further extension of hours is planned for 2019.

SLIS is currently recruiting a Quality Development Officer to develop a quality assurance and registration scheme for interpreters. It is expected that this post will be in place by November. The Quality Development Officer will work with SLIS' key stakeholders to research, develop and deliver a national registration scheme for sign language interpreters. S/he will also develop continuous professional development and training to support the provision of a high quality sign language interpreting service.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.