The son of an older couple who are hard of hearing has said they have been left feeling isolated since being unable to access the subtitles of their favourite RTÉ shows in the last few months.
Theresa (83) and Eamonn (78) Collins have been trying to lip-read newscasters and presenters on TV since they say the service suddenly stopped before Christmas.
Their son Jason has been highlighting the issue since he found out just last week, as he says it would affect thousands of hearing impaired people across the country.
"My parents are both deaf and my sisters and I have full hearing, so we grew up knowing how to sign, watching programmes with subtitles and realising the full implications of how lonely the silent world can be," said Jason, who works as a radio presenter with East Coast FM.
"I have early memories of signing to my cousins as a way of communicating between them and my parents.
"Subtitles are vital to those with hearing issues for them to enjoy a programme and not everyone can lip-read so the lack of this service recently must be so isolating for thousands of people.
"I only found out when I went to their house in Lucan, Co Dublin, and saw Mam looking at the news with no subtitles. She said there had been none for a few months on live shows like the news and the Late Late Shows but there were still subtitles on pre-recorded shows like soaps.
"We are with Virgin Media so I tried the other TV in the house but I wasn't able to access subtitles there either.
"RTÉ just recently got rid of Teletext, which my mother still enjoyed as she isn't the best with smartphones and technology, though my father is.
"Now there are no subtitles. BBC are terrific with subtitles, so why are the Irish stations apparently dismissive of those with hearing problems? They should be able to enjoy TV as much as anyone, as they pay their TV licence like everyone else.
"If it is a technical issue, why has it lasted two months? Surely in this day and age when everything is so easy to caption, it should be simple to put up subtitles.
"My parents are disappointed and feel more isolated, but they didn't complain about it or tell me until I asked. How many others who are hard of hearing are not complaining because they can't watch the staples of RTE – the news and the Late Late Show.
"They rely on subtitles, like we would rely on sound to get the full picture of the programme.
"According to statistics on the Irish Deaf Society's webpage, there are over 103,000 people who are hard of hearing in Ireland but many may not consider themselves to be part of the deaf community.
"I have made a complaint to RTÉ, so I hope the situation is rectified as soon as possible and gives people who are hard of hearing their voice back when it comes to watching TV."
A statement from RTÉ said: "Towards the end of November, RTÉ became aware that some viewers of RTÉ programmes on Virgin Media were having difficulty viewing subtitles for live RTÉ programmes. The problem does not impact the broadcast of the actual programmes, but affects live subtitles only, i.e. those that are input as the programme is being transmitted.
"It has taken some time to diagnose the exact issue, but we are working with Virgin Media Ireland and our supplier to resolve it and hope to have a fix for the issue shortly. RTÉ takes great pride in the provision of access services and we are anxious to resolve the issues."
A statement from Virgin Media said: "This is an RTE issue and we are currently working with them to fix this problem. We understand how vital these services are for our customers and we hope to get this matter resolved urgently."
