DUP says £1.9 millon Belfast Irish language policy funding ‘not acceptable’

The DUP has said the £1.9 million allocated to Belfast City Council’s Irish language policy is “not acceptable”, warning the sum may not even cover the full cost of the project.

The council has so far produced no breakdown of what individual parts of the policy, such as signage, rebranding, uniforms or vehicles, will cost.

DUP councillor Sarah Bunting said the £1.9 million is unlikely to be the final cost, with a further implementation period pencilled in for 2028 to 2031 on top of the current five-phase programme, which runs to October next year.

She also questioned pressing ahead with a policy that remains subject to a live legal challenge, with an appeal by Traditional Unionist Voice member Ann McClure due to be heard in November.

She told the August meeting of the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee: “I have concerns that we seem to be moving ahead with an awful lot based on a pre-determined outcome, even though there is a legal case to be heard in November.

“My main point now is that despite repeated requests we still don’t have a detailed, costed implementation plan. The £1.9 million has no breakdown showing what individual elements would cost, or whether that sum is even sufficient for the implementation plan that we have.

“We are not told the anticipated cost for each of the parts of the implementation, signing, rebranding, uniforms, vehicles etcetera. The list goes on and on.”

She added: “The report refers to a further implementation period, the second part covering 2028 to 2031. It is quite clear the £1.9 million is not going to be the entire envelope of costs.

“It seems (we believe) we should throw the £1.9 million at it and see where it gets us. I don’t think that should be accepted as responsible financial planning for a lot of major corporate programmes.

“I want to see in reports coming forward a clear account of all work taken to date, details of any expenditure and contracts already committed, and clarification of assurance that the implementation would not proceed pending the appeal in November. And also a contingency plan addressing the consequences if the appeal succeeds.”

The council adopted the policy last October to expand the use of Irish across council services, website content, signage and corporate branding.

It was approved by 42 councillors from Sinn Féin, Alliance, the SDLP, the Green Party and People Before Profit, with 17 unionist councillors against, after a debate described at the time as “toxic.”

The £1.9 million was said to come from council underspend.

Particular attention has focused on the council logo, with Sinn Féin backing a bilingual English-Irish version for vehicles, uniforms and signs and Alliance indicating it would support a logo with no wording. No agreement has been reached.

The policy is in its third phase, which runs to October this year and covers the start of signage installation at City Hall and across the council estate.

Sinn Féin councillor Tomás Ó Néill pressed officials to move faster. He told the meeting: “There have been such delays, and it was approved a long time ago. When I see a three month period for scoping and planning, I feel that it is a long time.

“A lot of people are waiting on this, I won’t say everybody. If there is anything we can do to expedite this, and speed up the process (let’s do that). Things like the top 10 most used pages, there isn’t a lot of scoping needs done for that.

“These things get drawn out with good will or otherwise, but I would appreciate anything we can do to speed up and smoothen the implementation of a policy we have agreed as a council, and funded.”