Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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52. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to provide an update on the implementation of the Irish Sign Language Act 2017 (ISL) within his Department and its associated public bodies, including details of any ISL strategies that have been developed; and if no ISL strategy has been developed to date, the details of plans his Department has to address this gap in the near future. [17982/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Transport is aware of its obligations under the Irish Sign Language Act 2017 and has advised public bodies under its remit of their obligations.

Since the commencement of the Act, this Department has not received any requests for Irish Sign Language interpretation from those seeking to avail of or access statutory entitlements or services provided by the Department. Irish Sign Language interpretation is provided at events hosted by the Department and for staff of the Department, when requested.

The Department of Transport has appointed an Access Officer in accordance with the Section 26 of Disability Act 2005 www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2005/act/14/section/26/enacted/en/html. The Access Officer is responsible for providing or arranging for, and co-ordinating assistance and guidance, to persons with disabilities accessing services provided by the offices and generally to act as a point of contact for people with disabilities wishing to access such services.

Contact details are available: www.gov.ie/en/organisation-information/8178b2-access-officer/.

The Department has not developed an Irish Sign Language strategy. However, the Department has published a Public Sector Duty Assessment and Action Plan. where we recognise our responsibility, to promote equality, prevent discrimination and protect the human rights of our employees, customers, service users, and everyone affected by their policies and plans. This is a legal obligation and is contained in Section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Act 2014 - www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2014/act/25/enacted/en/html. All staff of the Department are reminded of the need to consider Public Sector Duty in all of their work.

The Department of Transport is fully committed to accessibility in its communications. Closed captioning and subtitling are used in almost all the Department’s social media video output and the Department also avails of accessibility functions such as autogenerated captions provided by social media platforms to ensure that video content is accessible to as many people as possible.

Regarding bodies under the Department’s aegis, this is an operational matter for the agencies themselves. The Department will request the relevant bodies reply directly to the Deputy with the information requested. If you do not hear from them within 10 working days, please advise my private office.