Irish Sign Language Act 2017

Broadly, before the bill was passed there were large swathes of public services that were inaccessible to deaf people.

[1] In 2017, the Citizens Information Board published a report criticising a lack of interpreters in public organisations as undermining of the self-worth of deaf people and quite possibly clinically dangerous in a medical context due to the possibility of a misunderstanding leading to significant clinical risk.

[2] In 2020, primary education was cricitised as extremely exclusionary and inaccessible to deaf children.

One year after commencement, according to a report by the National Disability Authority into the operation of the law, awareness among public bodies about there was very low.

[5] The Irish Government delayed publication by 1 year due to an "ongoing legal issue".