Sir, – Further to letters (David O’Brien, October 24th & Dr John Bosco Conama, October 29th) relating to my request for a two-minute silence in the Dáil to highlight the experiences of deaf children seeking second bilateral cochlear implants, I wish to outline the reasoning behind my action.
This act was merely an attempt to make my Dáil colleagues aware of the experiences of parents and children who are seeking bilateral cochlear implants. I am not a spokesperson for the groups campaigning for this, nor am I a spokesperson for the deaf community, but I am an elected representative and have a role in advocating causes at the request of members of the public, and this is one of them.
I am fully aware of the debates surrounding the construction of deafness as a pathology and its subsequent medicalisation, and surgical treatment with bilateral cochlear implants, and the opposing view of deafness as a cultural minority to be emancipated – but my request for two minutes silence in the Dáil was certainly not to pitch one against the other, nor to define those who are deaf as either a linguistic community or a group of persons with a disability.
Sinn Féin has long supported the campaign by the Irish Deaf Society for official recognition for Irish Sign Language as a third official language and has called on this, and previous governments, to address this as a matter of priority. We are committed to the positive promotion of equality for the deaf community and have called for a bilateral cochlear implant programme in the HSE national service plan due to be published next month.
Equality is an integral part of a democratic society and this includes upholding the rights of those who use Irish Sign Language. However, equality should mean that people also have access to medical and surgical treatments should they wish to avail of them. – Is mise,
JONATHAN O’BRIEN TD,
Sinn Féin Spokesperson
on Education, Skills,
Training & Science,
Leinster House,
Kildare Street,
Dublin 2.