Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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389. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will report on the implementation of the Irish Sign Language Act 2017 by her Department and by agencies which operate under the remit of her Department. [8236/23]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I would like to thank the Deputy for the question and would like to advise the following:

The Department of Education is fully committed to implementing the Irish Sign Language (ISL) Act 2017 as intended so as to ensure that the education system is a fully inclusive environment for all students who are Deaf or hard of hearing.

The period covered by the review of the ISL Act coincided with the Department and our schools operating in a very challenging environment since the onset of Covid 19 in early 2020 and this resulted in considerable disruption to the necessary planning and consultation to progress the required schemes in the required timeframes.

Notwithstanding this, considerable progress has been made since the timeframe of the review and I would like to briefly outline the progress made on all aspects of the ISL Act 2017.

My Department has in place an ISL Home Tuition scheme which support families of students who rely on ISL as required by Section 5(a) of the Act. The total cost of this ISL tuition scheme is in the region of €310,000 annually, with approximately 240 children and their families supported under the scheme by approximately 72 tutors

The Act requires me to establish a scheme to provide Irish Sign Language support for children attending recognised schools whose primary language is Irish Sign Language.

I was delighted to announce, last November, the commencement of the first phase of the implementation of an enhanced scheme of provision.

The new scheme is in addition to the existing provision that is in place, the enhanced scheme includes the implementation of two new roles to the education system, an ISL – Specialist Classroom Support (referred to as ISL – SCS) and an Advisor Deaf/Hard of Hearing (ISL) (referred to as ISL Advisor).

The ISL - SCS role will provide intensive support to individual students whose primary language is ISL to access the curriculum

The ISL Advisor role will focus on upskilling whole school communities and a student’s peers to enhance an inclusive environment for pupils whose sole means of communication is ISL in schools.

Both of these roles will play a pivotal role into the future by ensuring that students whose primary language is ISL are supported by a holistic whole school approach.

A national advertising campaign commenced in January 2023, by the NCSE, to recruit for the role of ISL-SCS on a nationwide basis and this campaign will be followed by an ISL Advisor campaign.

The new Bachelor of Education (Irish Sign Language) is the first programme of its kind in the history of the State. It is a new undergraduate pilot programme in Dublin City University Institute of Education (DCU) that enables Deaf and Hard of Hearing people who use Irish Sign Language (ISL) to enter primary teaching and commenced in September 2019. It is a four-year, full-time, honours degree specifically designed for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students who communicate through ISL.

The Teaching Council is the statutory body charged with determining standards for the teaching profession and for accrediting programmes of Initial Teacher Education (ITE). All ITE programmes that lead to registration with the Council must have professional accreditation from the Council.

Considerable research working is ongoing at present led by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) in the area of ISL and the Curriculum. This research report, when finalised, will provide information on where Sign Language sits within broader curriculum and policy frameworks internationally, the stages of development and essential indicators for learning Sign Language, suitable pedagogical approaches and guidance on assessing learning in Sign Language.