The Citizens Information Board (CIB), a statutory body under the aegis of my Department, provides funding to The Sign Language Interpreting Service (SLIS) - the national service for the development, promotion and delivery of sign language interpreting services to the Deaf community in Ireland. The Remote Interpreting Application was a six-month pilot project developed by CIB and SLIS, and funded under the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform’s Innovation Fund 2020.
I am advised that the Pilot commenced on 1st January 2021 and ended as planned on the 30th June 2021. The Deaf community and service providers had already been made aware of this by CIB and SLIS. The CIB has informed me that due to the procurement arrangements in place, it is not possible to continue to operate the application on an interim basis during the review process.
CIB has also informed me that an external independent evaluation of the Pilot is currently underway and that CIB and SLIS will review the evaluation report and its recommendations in detail, in considering the continuation or mainstreaming of the Application. Based on number of calls and the duration of these calls during the Pilot, the average call time was just over seven and a half minutes per call.
The Irish Remote Interpreting Service (IRIS) ensures that a deaf person can pre-book a live video link to an Irish Sign Language interpreter, enabling access to services. If a deaf person may require a service beyond 22 minutes, they can book a second back-to-back appointment, thereby increasing capacity for longer calls to services, financial institutions etc. as may be required.
