{"id":51847,"date":"2025-03-31T12:13:18","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T12:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/grand-central-irish-language-signs-row-to-be-escalated-at-executive\/"},"modified":"2025-03-31T12:13:20","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T12:13:20","slug":"grand-central-irish-language-signs-row-to-be-escalated-at-executive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/grand-central-irish-language-signs-row-to-be-escalated-at-executive\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand Central Irish-language signs row to be escalated at executive"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Enda McClafferty<\/span><\/p>\n

Northern Ireland political editor<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"PAPA Media<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Gavin Robinson has described the signs as a “pet project” of Sinn F\u00e9in<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Gavin Robinson has warned his party has put a “marker” down at Stormont to block Sinn F\u00e9in spending money on “pet projects”.<\/p>\n

It follows the decision by Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins to approve \u00a3150,000 for Irish-language signage at Belfast’s new Grand Central Station<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A row over the Irish language around the executive table is nothing new but this one has been simmering for some time.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in has accused the DUP of blocking the executive from resolving a funding crisis for cross-border Irish language services<\/a>, which are facing a \u00a3650,000 cut.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The finger of blame is being pointed at DUP Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly for refusing to allow the matter to reach the executive.<\/p>\n

So this latest row over Irish-language signage at Belfast Central Station has added another pressure point.<\/p>\n

In an email to his supporters over the weekend, the DUP leader said the signage decision was now being challenged around the executive table.<\/p>\n

It is understood DUP Communities Minister Gordon Lyons has posed a series of questions about the move in a letter to the infrastructure minister.<\/p>\n

Last week Little-Pengelly criticised the decision, claiming “much of the \u00a3150,000 will be used to rip out new signs” to “drive forward a political agenda” by the infrastructure minister.<\/p>\n

She also questioned spending the money at a time when the executive financially was in a “very difficult place”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"PAPA Media<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins said her decision reflected the “thriving Irish language community”<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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But in announcing the extra funding, Kimmins said it was a “hugely positive development” which reflected the “thriving Irish language community”.<\/p>\n

She also confirmed her decision had passed an equality screening exercise which showed it would have “a minor positive impact”.<\/p>\n

It may come down to whether or not the decision by the infrastructure minister to approve funding for the signs should have been subject to wider executive approval.<\/p>\n

Robinson believes it should.<\/p>\n

“This is clearly a controversial matter and our ministers will use their position at the executive table to not only get to the bottom of how the decision was made but put a marker down that public money cannot be used to further Sinn F\u00e9in’s pet project,” the DUP leader said.<\/p>\n

Whether the decision can be taken by a single minister depends on whether it is considered “controversial” and\/or cross-cutting, in other words whether it falls under the purview of multiple departments.<\/p>\n

History tell us it may be a judge and not a minister who decides, if we reach that point.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Enda McClafferty Northern Ireland political editor PA Media Gavin Robinson has described the signs as a “pet project” of Sinn F\u00e9in Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Gavin Robinson has warned his party has put a “marker” down at Stormont to block Sinn F\u00e9in spending money on “pet projects”. It follows the decision by Infrastructure Minister […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48],"tags":[5782,10290,2727,6924,16707,682,378],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51849,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51847\/revisions\/51849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}