Interpreting Access within the Health Service Executive

INTERPRETING ACCESS WITHIN THE HSE
Kerry Deaf Resource Centre

Our service along with other Deaf services and Hands ON TV have been campaigning for many years for improved access to services particularly to the Health Service Executive (HSE). We wrote to the HSE to ascertain how much money was spent on sign language interpreting access in Kerry. We made this request under the Freedom of Information Act.

The response was ".... a head can refuse to grant the request if the record concerned does not exist......". The letter goes on to say, "The funding details you have requested are not held in that specific nature either locally or centrally. Our financial records of funding are divided into set structures so as to conform to a national standardisation. Funding for Sign Language is contained within our Interpreter expenses total spend and allocation."

Given the introduction of the Equal Status Acts 2000 + 2004, and The Disability Act 2005- it is shocking to hear that there are no specific records for sign language interpreting spend within the HSE. The only information that is available was the overall spend on all interpreting services, which includes spoken language interpreting. Given the large number of languages now in use in Kerry, we anticipated that the spend would be quite high? Not so, in 2008, the HSE Kerry only spent 29,749.69 euro. If you take spoken language interpreting out of this amount, it confirms that the HSE is spending very little on sign language interpreting access.

In Cork, the overall spend is remarkably higher 302, 387 euro. Again, there is no specific information available on sign language spend. This needs to change and we must continue with the campaign for better access. Deaf people's health and their lives are at risk if they are not provided with appropriate access/support.

Taken from Kerry Deaf Resource Centre update, 30/3/09