The organisations cover a cross section of essential services including medical, financial, insurance and public services.
The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (the ‘Commission’) announced today that it has used its legal powers, under Section 32(1)(a) of the 2014 IHREC Act, to invite six organisations to each carry out an equality review of their services for Deaf persons who use Irish Sign Language (‘ISL’).
The organisations invited are Wexford General Hospital; Beaumont Hospital; Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda Hospital; AA Ireland; Permanent TSB plc; and Intreo Centres run by the Department of Social Protection. All of the six organisations have accepted this invitation.
All organisations invited provide services for the purposes of the Equal Status Acts 2000 – 2018 (the ‘ESA’). The ESA prohibits discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services on ten specific grounds, including disability. The ESA also requires a provider of a service to do all that is reasonable to accommodate the needs of disabled people by providing special treatment or facilities, if without such facilities it would be impossible or unduly difficult for the person to avail of the service themselves.
Irish Sign Language became a recognised national language in 2020 upon the commencement of the Irish Sign Language Act 2017(‘ISL Act’). The ISL Act recognises the right of ISL users to use ISL as their native language. It also provides that the community of persons using ISL shall have the right to use, develop and preserve ISL.
Each organisation has been invited to conduct an equality review in relation to the treatment of Deaf customers. As part of their equality reviews, the Commission invited each organisation to:
- Identify all practices and procedures (for example, strategies, plans and positive action initiatives) that relate to the accessibility of services to Deaf persons who use ISL;
- Assess the effectiveness of such practices and procedures in relation to the accessibility of services to Deaf persons who use ISL;
- Provide examples of how the effective implementation of the relevant practices and procedures are assessed in terms of equality of opportunity;
- Consider compliance of the relevant practices and procedures with the obligations under the Equal Status Acts, in particular, the prohibition on discrimination on the grounds of disability and the obligation to provide reasonable accommodation; and
- Outline any recommendations and/or findings from the equality review.
Liam Herrick, the IHREC Chief Commissioner said:
"Barriers to the use of ISL interpreters present a significant barrier for certain Deaf people to avail of essential everyday services. These equality reviews will provide an important opportunity to reflect on the systems and practices that service providers have in place for Deaf people; and the review will identify if more can be done to ensure equality of opportunity for Deaf people when accessing services.” "We welcome the organisations' willingness to engage in this process.”
As the process has now begun, we will be making no further comment.