Deaf children being denied constitutional right to an education, Dáil told

Deaf children are being "lost in the system" and denied their constructional right to education, the Dáil has heard.

The Minister for Disabilities, Anne Rabbitte, has hit out at a number of Government departments for denying deaf children and adults their entitlements, claiming "they should know better".

The Irish Sign Language Act established in 2017 places a statutory duty on all public bodies to provide free interpretation for all statutory entitlements and services. However, this is still not being carried out.

Fianna Fáil TD Pádraig O'Sullivan said deaf children are being forced to interpret for their deaf classmates adding that it is "quite apparent that we the State have failed and are continuing to fail these families".

Raising the case of Calum Geary, from Ballyhooly, Co. Cork, who is profoundly deaf and has been without a classroom interpreter for four years, Mr O'Sullivan said: "People are being lost in the system and lost through the cracks, that's four years of his education that he will never get back.

"These children have constitutional rights, and the State has an obligation to provide appropriately trained personnel to impart knowledge and teach these wonderful children," the Cork North-Central TD said.

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He added that although interpreters have a four-year degree from either Trinity College or DCU, they are paid the equivalent of an SNA.

"This is no way to detract from the excellent work that our SNAs do on a daily basis," he said, but added that the "harsh reality" is interpreters have trained for nearly as long as a fully-qualified teacher but receive far less when it comes to pay.

Ms Rabbitte said she commissioned a report to assess the implementation of the Act. However, she is still waiting on observations from various departments to come back in.

"I think it is remissible of the departments to be so slow," Ms Rabbitte told the Dáil.

She said Departments and public bodies "should know better" and "should know the value of allowing people the opportunity to be the very best that they can be, to allow people to perform their roles and responsibilities, and to integrate with services, integrate with their peers, but also to recognise that Irish Sign Language (ISL) is a form of communication and it is their first language."