Executive appoints first Irish language and Ulster-Scots commissioners

The Stormont Executive has finally appointed language commissioners first agreed in the New Decade, New Approach agreement in 2020.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly confirmed the appointment of Pol Deeds as the Irish language commissioner and Lee Reynolds as the commissioner for the Ulster Scots and the Ulster British tradition.

Dr Katy Radford has also been appointed as director of the Office of Identity and Cultural Expression (OICE), and Brian Dougherty, Ellen Finlay, Stephen Moore, Dr Callie Persic and Dr Jacqueline Witherow as members of the OICE board.

All appointees will take up their posts on November 13 for a period of five years, Ms O’Neill and Ms Little-Pengelly announced in a written ministerial statement to the Assembly.

The creation of the posts was committed to in the Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act which was passed in 2022, but a recruitment competition did not start until March 2025.

Conradh na Gaeilge and An Dream Dearg said the Irish language commissioner will be able to set best practice and new standards.

They said the Irish language commissioner will also have a duty to investigate complaints made with regards to non-compliance by public authorities in relation to the new language standards.

Conradh na Gaeilge president Ciaran Mac Giolla Bhein described the appointment as a “defining watershed in our campaign towards language rights and equality”.

“For the first time in our history, we will have a strong voice for language rights in the very heart of the state,” he said.

“We expect immediate guidance from the new Irish language commissioner on issues of urgent public interest.”

Ian Crozier from the Ulster-Scots Agency said: "We’re talking about a very complex space, and actually, it’s very easy to look at some of these things in isolation, and for different sets of people to think, oh well, you know, this is our right, we demand our rights.

“But actually one of the things that the Ulster-Scots Agency is very clear on is that language and cultural rights are not absolute, so the rights of one set of people have to be balanced against the rights of other people and also against wider good relations obligations that there are under the Northern Ireland Act.”