Debate contribution: Sign Language Bill: Final Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Gordon Lyons on 28 April 2026.

MLA

Mr Gordon Lyons

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

28 April 2026

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Sign Language Bill: Final Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5510005

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am delighted to move the Final Stage of the Northern Ireland Sign Language Bill, and I am grateful for the opportunity to address the Assembly at what is clearly an historic moment. I am absolutely delighted to welcome the deaf community here. As I look up into the Public Gallery, I can see that the community has turned up in large numbers from near and far to witness what is happening. For many of them, this day has been a long time coming. In my time in the House, I cannot remember so many people being in the Public Gallery for the Final Stage of any legislation. I am delighted at such a strong turnout. It speaks to the importance of the legislation for the community that is represented here today. I am also delighted that, over the past few weeks, planning for this day has been led by members of the deaf signing community, supported by my officials. I am grateful for their efforts. I also thank Parliament Buildings staff and the British Sign Language (BSL) and Irish Sign Language (ISL) interpreters who have facilitated the signposting and escorting of visitors to the Public Gallery. I also thank the students from the Department for Communities-funded Queen's University MA in sign language interpreting. They have volunteered their services to help with supporting deaf visitors during their visit to Parliament Buildings today. I wish them well with their final dissertations. We are also joined by representatives of the deaf community who have travelled from other jurisdictions. They are very welcome. This is a day that has been much anticipated by the deaf and deafblind signing community. For them and for the whole of Northern Ireland society, this is a day that truly merits being described as "historic". As Members, we are being asked a simple but significant question: should Northern Ireland formally recognise BSL and ISL and strengthen our commitment to equality, dignity and inclusion for deaf and deafblind signing people? I am confident that the answer from the Assembly today will be an emphatic yes. To understand why the Bill matters, we must first acknowledge the long experience of deaf people not only in Northern Ireland but across these islands and beyond. For generations, deaf people have built rich linguistic, cultural and social communities through sign language, yet, too often, that history has been marked by exclusion. Legal recognition of sign languages has lagged far beyond the lived reality. At the Bill's Further Consideration Stage, I spoke of the Milan conference in 1880 and how its decisions contributed to deaf children being discouraged from learning and using their own language and deaf people in general being marginalised in employment and civic life — often seen and treated as outsiders and not quite belonging.

Despite those challenges, deaf people persevered. They organised, advocated and passed their languages from one generation to the next. They ensured that their sign languages did not simply survive but flourish.

Those from the deaf community who are gathered here today will know of a central figure in that struggle: Francis Maginn. He was born near Mallow in County Cork in 1861 and spent most of his working life in Belfast until his death in 1918. He advocated on behalf of the deaf community to improve living standards, promote sign language and undo the injustices that flowed from the decisions made in Milan. Maginn was buried in Belfast city cemetery and is remembered in College Square North in Belfast, where an Ulster History Circle blue plaque at Wilton House reads:

"Pioneer for Rights and Education of Deaf People".

I am pleased to have joined other funders, including the Ulster Society for Promoting the Education of the Deaf and the Blind, to support c21 Theatre Company and ensure that its play 'Call to Adventure: The Life and Travels of Francis Maginn' can tour venues across Northern Ireland. I am also pleased that the cast and crew will perform a short excerpt from the play in the Long Gallery after this debate at an event sponsored by me that will, I trust, mark the passing of the Northern Ireland Sign Language Bill. I reiterate my invitation to Members to attend that event. The passing of the Bill would be a fitting tribute to the life and travels of Francis Maginn, because it delivers on many of the issues that he championed. It recognises BSL and ISL as languages in their own right, not as supports or accommodations but as full languages, with their own grammar, structure and cultural significance. That recognition matters. It sends a clear signal that deaf people and sign language users are valued members of our society. It ensures true equality, respects human rights and aligns Northern Ireland with international good practice. The Bill moves us away from a deficit-based model and one that focuses solely on impairment towards a model that recognises the linguistic identity and, importantly, cultural identity of our deaf and deafblind community. It has been a privilege for me to lead on this groundbreaking work on behalf of the Executive. Long before the Bill reached the Assembly, my Department was already engaging with the deaf community, its representatives and service providers to understand lived experience and practical need. That work included developing sign language interpreting services across public services; working in partnership with deaf-led organisations to co-design, develop and fund strategic interventions, including the family sign language programme, which is a priority for me and for which the Bill provides a statutory guarantee that classes will remain free of charge; establishing structured engagement through advisory and partnership groups; and improving awareness of sign language across Departments and public bodies. The Bill builds on that foundation, gives legislative shape to the work that has already begun and provides the clarity and stability that is needed to drive progress in the long term. The Bill is about rectifying a long-standing inequality. It reflects values that, I believe, are shared across the Assembly: fairness, dignity and inclusion. For far too long, that has not been the reality for members of our deaf community, but that ends today. I am therefore proud to have brought the legislation to its Final Stage, and I commend the Bill to the House.

1,049 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:28 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

Disagree with this assessment?

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

Challenge this classification