Debate contribution: Sign Language Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Ms Carál Ní Chuilín on 18 February 2025.

MLA: Ms Carál Ní Chuilín
Party at the time: Sinn Féin
Date: 18 February 2025
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Executive Committee Business
Heading: Sign Language Bill: Second Stage
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4806668

Text

Minister, thank you and well done. To your officials, who have been working in this area for at least 15 years, well done. Knowing those officials, I expect that they have put their heart and soul into the work right from the sign language framework. They have worked with many of the people who are in the Public Gallery — well done to them — and they persevered and did not lose patience with us when it would have been quite appropriate for them to do so. The message across the Bill's Second Stage debate so far is probably one of pride mixed with regret that we could not bring the Bill forward sooner, because it officially recognises sign language, be it British Sign Language or Irish Sign Language. The legislation puts it on a statutory footing for our deaf community. It was never legal to discriminate against deaf people, but the Bill means that each Department will have to fulfil its statutory obligations towards the deaf and partially hearing community. Many have said that sign language is the only communication that people who are deaf have. It is something that we take for granted. Some things struck me from just quickly looking at the Bill today. I think of a youngster who might go to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). They might be very vulnerable, and they might be talking about things that really matter to them or struggles that they have. Rather than the responsibilities being on the child and their family, there will be someone who can sign. It would be even better if it were a professional in CAMHS. I think of children and young people who have to go through family court proceedings when there is a divorce. They might have to talk to a guardian. I want to see that facility being brought to there as well. We have to think of where children and young people are and bring the services to them, regardless of where the service is needed. I hope that the adults see their work in the Bill, particularly at Second Stage. If amendments are made, they will be made only to enrich and enhance the Bill and make it better. I believe that that will be the case across the board in this place. I certainly want to thank those adults for their perseverance and, indeed, dignity, because it was all very personal. It was about someone's child or someone's spouse not having access to the things that we take for granted, so of course it was very personal. I hope that they will all feel that the Bill that the Minister and his Department have introduced reflects what they have been campaigning for for a long time. In the 2021 consultation, young people from the National Deaf Children's Society reported the real impact that the legislation would have. For me, this sums it up:
"People won't have to go through as much, feeling like it's a problem that they are deaf."
That is really important. One young person said that sign language:
"should be accessible to everyone because it would help deaf people a lot if they were able to talk to other people that were speaking in their own language."
It would mean so much. That is obvious in the Bill's explanatory memorandum. I will finish by thanking those who have worked so tirelessly for years. I thank the Minister and his officials for their work on the Bill. I want to say how impressed I am with his signing at the start of the debate. That will mean so much. It will have been the first time that deaf adults and children will have ever seen themselves properly represented in the Chamber, so well done. I thank people like Emma, who is the hearing parent of a deaf son, Patrick, who has pursued this on behalf of all the other families and, indeed, those in the Public Gallery. I just want to say this: well done and thank you.

675 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Awaiting analysis

This record has not been analysed yet. It is not counted in any total until it has been assessed.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reviews every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification