Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 30 June 2004
149 Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Education and Science further to the Northern Ireland Office’s recent declaration that the British and Irish sign languages are redeemed as official languages, the support he will lend to the attempts of the Irish Deaf Society to have similar recognition attributed to Irish sign language here. [19341/04]
View answer152 Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Education and Science the resources in place within the education system for promotion of the Irish sign language. [19342/04]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 149 and 152 together.
I wish to advise the Deputy that Irish sign language, ISL, has formal recognition in the Education Act 1998 and that my Department has given practical effect to that legislative recognition through a series of initiatives, outlined below, which seek to promote, develop and implement ISL in order that it will achieve greater recognition and use in the education system for the deaf.
My Department has provided resources and implemented a number of initiatives over the last number of years to promote the use of Irish sign language in the education system. It has established an advisory committee on the education of the deaf to examine all relevant matters in the education of the deaf and hard of hearing, including making recommendations for the promotion of ISL in the education system. A deaf person was chosen to chair this committee and a number of deaf representatives are also on the committee. I have asked this committee to report to me by October 2004. The special schools for the deaf in Cabra, Dublin, have been encouraged in regard to the use of sign language in classes. All teachers now receive ongoing inservice training in the use of ISL which is funded by the teacher education section of my Department. My Department has sanctioned and funded the employment of deaf people as special needs assistants, SNAs, in the schools for the deaf in Cabra who act as communication support workers in classrooms and as role models for deaf pupils.
It should be noted that the number of sign dependent profoundly deaf pupils is a relatively small proportion of the total number of deaf and hard of hearing pupils in the education system generally. My Department has provided funding for an ISL weekly home tuition service whereby deaf tutors visit the homes of deaf pre-school children and deaf schoolgoing pupils to provide training in ISL for deaf children and pupils, their siblings and parents. The value of ISL has already been acknowledged in the Education Act 1998 and my Department has sanctioned a pre-school for deaf children on a pilot basis for five years until June 2007. The personnel in the pre-school deliver a programme through the medium of Irish sign language as a first language.
Funding is also provided for ISL classes for immediate relatives of the children attending the facility. My Department, through the Higher Education Authority, HEA, has established and fully funds a centre for deaf studies in Trinity College, Dublin, which provides diploma courses for ISL/English interpreters, deaf tutors and in deaf studies. Funding is provided for the Link UP project which delivers literacy training to deaf adults in Ireland.
