Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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198. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to provide an update on the implementation of the Irish Sign Language Act 2017 (ISL) within his Department and its associated public bodies, including details of any ISL strategies that have been developed; and if no ISL strategy has been developed to date, the details of plans his Department has to address this gap in the near future. [17969/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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My Department and the agencies and bodies under its aegis are fully aware of their obligations under the Irish Sign Language (ISL) Act 2017 and I am committed to raising awareness of the Act across the Justice sector. My Department and all relevant aegis bodies provide ISL interpretation free of charge upon request.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy , launched in 2022, aims to achieve better policy outcomes and improved accessibility of all services for our diverse range of service users. A cross-function EDI and Public Sector Duty Committee drives implementation of the strategy, including those commitments contained in the Irish Sign Language Act 2017.

At all Irish Citizenship Ceremonies, ISL is provided as a matter of course, to facilitate users, but also to increase visibility of the language. All meetings and events, organised through the Department of Justice events team, list ISL interpretation as a specific accessibility requirement. Our Learning and Development team provide closed captioning on all their recorded webinars, and ISL interpreting is also made available for all training events as requested.

To mark Deaf Awareness Month, in September of last year the Learning & Development team hosted a session on Deaf Awareness training. And in December, to highlight the most recent ISL Day, my Department’s Access Team placed a message in Irish Sign Language on its internal Portal . This was complimented by an email circulation to all staff about the ISL Act and our responsibilities.

Following on from this, in a recent accessibility awareness quiz, run within the Department, over 22% of staff who responded stated they were very aware of the ISL act, 62% were somewhat aware, with only 16% having never heard of the act.

My Department's Access Team have organised an accessibility awareness event later in the month which will feature a practical presentation on the act by a colleague who is also an ISL user.

Across the Justice sector, an access officer network has been running for the past several years. Through this network, the core principles of the ISL act are regularly brought to members attention. More recently, invitations to the Citizen’s Information ‘Be Irish Sign Language Friendly Online’ was shared to the network. Members were also provided with follow up information from the Department’s Deaf Awareness session and have been invited to attend the upcoming ISL presentation.

I am informed by An Garda Síochána, recognising their obligations under the Irish Sign Language Act 2017, that they have introduced a number of initiatives aimed at improving access to policing services by members of the deaf community.

Ahead of the commencement of the Act, pilot schemes for the provision of remote ISL translation services were run at Cabra and Tralee Garda Stations with the assistance of the Centre for Deaf Studies at Trinity College.

In 2023, HQ Directive 061/2023 was sent to all Garda Personnel. This instruction summarises the main provisions of the Act as they pertain to An Garda Síochána as a public body. The Directive requires each Garda Region to nominate a central point of contact to consult the Register of Irish Sign Language Interpreters to establish the identity and contact details of the ISL Interpreters that are available and can be contacted as required including to provide remote translation services.

Separately, in conjunction with the Centre for Deaf Studies at Trinity College, a video recording of the Judges Rules Caution translated into Irish Sign Language has been produced and is available on all Garda mobility devices for use as required. This video has been approved for use by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

An Garda Síochána remains committed to ensuring equal access to justice for ISL users. The Garda Human Rights Section, as part of the development of the Garda Human Rights Strategy 2025-2027, has received a submission from the Centre for Deaf Studies at Trinity College containing a number of recommendations as to how access to policing services can be enhanced for users of Irish Sign Language. These submissions are under active consideration in the development of the Strategy.

I am further informed by the Courts Service of Ireland that the Courts Service Public Sector Duty Action Plan 2024- 2027 outlines their commitment to support customers by continuing to provide ISL interpretation services in criminal, civil and family law court proceedings and outlines that the key performance indicator for this is that an interpreter will be available to every court user who identifies in advance of a hearing that they need an interpreter. The Courts Service have demonstrated a commitment to this in 2024 and 2025 by providing ISL interpretation services to a legal practitioner to ensure their participation in court proceedings.

To ensure that ISL interpreters would be available to support the requirements of the Act and the commitments of the Public Sector Duty Action Plan, the Courts Service issued an ISL Invitation to Participate in an Authorisation Scheme for the provision of ISL interpretation Services in October 2024. The purpose of the Invitation to Participate is to establish a panel of ISL interpreters for court proceedings. The evaluation of tenders received will take place in April 2025 and the intention is to have a panel in place over the coming months.