Anne Rabbitte

The Irish Sign Language Act 2017 requires a report on the operation of the Act to be produced within three years of the law’s enactment, and then every five years thereafter.

Anne Rabbitte, the minister of state with responsibility for discrimination, confirmed that the National Disability Authority (NDA) had completed the three-year report in December 2021, but gave no specific date for its publication.

She said: “The report is receiving detailed consideration within my Department. As the recommendations of the report affect a wide range of organisations, it has been necessary to consider the whole of government implications arising. I intend to publish the report at the earliest possible opportunity.”

Although enacted in 2017, the Act was not commenced until December 2020.

It enshrines in law that the “community of persons using Irish Sign Language shall have the right to use, develop and preserve Irish Sign Language”, as well as setting out new requirements and obligations on public bodies for the provision of ISL services.

Section 4 of the Act provides that “every court has, in any proceedings before it, the duty to do all that is reasonable to ensure that any person competent in Irish Sign Language and who cannot hear or understand English or Irish appearing in or giving evidence before it may be heard in that language, if that is his or her choice”.

Professor Lorraine Leeson of the Centre for Deaf Studies at Trinity College Dublin told Irish Legal News that the review being conducted so early into the implementation of the Act “seems incredibly pre-emptive”.

She said her experience of working with An Garda Síochána as partners in the European Commission-funded Justisigns 2 project was that there is “a real willingness to ensure that appropriate provisions are put in place to ensure the Act is complied with”.

Professor Leeson added: “However, it takes time. It would be very useful to know if public services have action plans in place around implementation of the ISL Act, who oversees these, who they report to on progress, and how frequently.

“If we are serious about access and participation then we must have coordinated responses to ensure that systems are modifying policies and practices as needed, ensuring that they respond in a timely manner, with feedback loops from Deaf community stakeholders built into the process.

“Our Scottish colleagues do this well following from implementation of the British Sign Language Act (Scotland) (2015) – they have a national plan and, following from this, bodies like the City of Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh have BSL Plans in place.”