Second Report on the ISL Act in 2025

Progress reporting on the operation of the Irish Sign Language (ISL) Act 2017

The National Disability Authority (NDA) is preparing a report for the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality about how the Irish Sign Language (ISL) Act 2017 is working. This is the second report - the first Report on the Operation of the ISL Act was prepared by the NDA and published in 2023. 

The Minister has requested that this report focus on progress “made since the previous report with regards the implementation of the ISL Act”. The NDA will use the findings from the 2021 report as the baseline in determining progress.

To understand and report on progress on the operation of the ISL Act since the previous report, the NDA wants to know from ISL users and family members about the experience of accessing public services and entitlements through Irish Sign Language in the past five years.

Your feedback can be provided through any of the following ways:

• Online public surveys
• ISL submissions by video
• Written submissions by email or post
• Online public meetings 

The closing date for public consultation is 10 October 2025.

Online Public Survey

You can provide your views through our online surveys. These surveys are in both English and ISL. There is one general survey, and one for parents/guardians of children who are D/deaf or hard of hearing. The links are provided below:

• Main survey
• Survey for parents/guardians of children who are D/deaf or hard of hearing

Written submission by email or post

We welcome your views on the operation of the ISL Act in writing. We have provided a suggested written submission template for you to use. Written submissions can be sent to:

• Email to isl@nda.ie
• Post to: ISL Public Consultation, 25 Clyde Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, D04 E409

Public Meetings

There will be two public meetings, which will be accessible for ISL users. 

The meetings will be:

• Thursday 2 October, 7-9pm: For parents/guardians of children who are D/deaf or hard of hearing

  Topic: Children’s access to ISL in public services
  Chair: Mary Tallant, NDA
  English speakers and ISL users welcome. This meeting will include live captioning and ISL/English interpretation.

   

• Tuesday 7 October, 7-9pm: For adult ISL users only 

  Topic: Access to ISL in public services
  Chair: Elaine Grehan, IDS
  This meeting will be ISL only. 

Register to attend a public meeting

Please only sign up to one meeting. If a very high number of people register to attend, we may need to limit numbers, so please only register for the meeting you expect to be able to attend.

Any Questions? 

If you have any questions about the public consultation, you can contact us by:

Email: isl@nda.ie  

Text or ISL Video only on WhatsApp: 087 373 0102

We thank you for your support.

Confidentiality and Data Protection

Any information you provide for this public consultation is anonymous.

We will not share any information you provide with anyone else.

If you have any questions about data protection please contact the NDA Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@nda.ie.