Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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288. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to issues with the voucher scheme run by the Sign Language Interpreting Service and Citizens Information Board specifically related to the limited availability of vouchers per person; and if she will consider increasing funding to the scheme in order to expand the amount of vouchers available. [38538/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As you will be aware, Section 9 of the Irish Sign Language (ISL) Act, 2017 assigns responsibility to the Minister for Social Protection to provide funds to facilitate users of ISL to access "social, educational and cultural events and services (including medical) and other activities".

This Scheme does not replace the requirements of public bodies under the ISL Act to provide access to ISL for those who need it.

I assigned the implementation of this important responsibility to the Citizens Information Board (CIB), the statutory body under the aegis of my Department, which in turn assigned delivery to its relevant funded company, the Sign Language Interpreting Service (SLIS).

Following a four-month pilot of an "ISL Voucher Scheme" in 2021 by SLIS, supported by my Department and CIB, I was delighted to see the commencement of the Scheme on a permanent basis from 2nd October 2023.

From 1st January to the end of August 2024, SLIS administered 425 vouchers to 339 applicants for ISL interpretation for a variety of activities, such as private medical appointments, private legal meetings, educational and training courses, and events with family, friends and the community.

As stipulated under the Act, SLIS developed Guidelines for the Scheme.

As part of this, a Fair Usage Policy was developed to ensure as many eligible people across Ireland as possible can access and benefit from this service. The Fair Usage Policy was also developed given that, like most government funded schemes, the ISL Voucher Scheme has an annual allocated budget.

As part of this policy, users are eligible for a maximum of five vouchers per year. This limit and overall demand are kept under review by SLIS and CIB.

From the 1st of January to the end of August 2024, most applicants (219 or 65% of all applicants) claimed 1-2 vouchers under the Scheme, while demand for the limit of 5 vouchers was significantly less, with 9 applicants or 3% of all applicants claiming this amount.

It is also important to point out that for short-term training courses or activities, I am informed by CIB that there is flexibility shown and one voucher may be used for the entirety of the training, therefore avoiding a scenario where someone may have to apply for several vouchers for one activity.