TENSIONS BETWEEN the DUP and Sinn Féin continued yesterday after British prime minister Gordon Brown provided an additional £6 million to safeguard Irish language broadcasting in the North for an additional two years.
The funding was signed-off on when Mr Brown was in Belfast on Monday for President Bush’s visit to Northern Ireland.
The money is coming from Westminster rather than through the Northern Executive, reflecting the continuing stresses between Sinn Féin and the DUP over promotion of the Irish language – one of the issues that recently threatened the stability of the powersharing administration.
DUP Assembly member Nelson McCausland said it was “merely a fig leaf” to cover Sinn Féin’s failure to deliver the Irish language Act that the British and Irish governments endorsed in the St Andrews Agreement.
Mr Adams insisted yesterday that Sinn Féin remained determined to see the language Act introduced.
This month Sinn Féin had threatened to block the election of Peter Robinson as First Minister over the DUP’s refusal to move on the Act, and other issues such as the devolution of policing and justice and a proposed stadium at the Maze prison site.
That crisis was averted when Sinn Féin and the DUP agreed to hold talks to try to resolve “outstanding issues”.
Mr Brown’s move on Irish broadcasting was viewed as an attempt by the British government to temporarily address some Sinn Féin concerns.
The £6 million in funding ensures that Irish language broadcasting can continue beyond 2009 to 2011. Hitherto, it was unclear where the funding would come from when current money runs out next year.
Mr Adams said the funding was provided following “intense” representations by Sinn Féin to the British government, and was necessitated by the failure of the former DUP culture minister Edwin Poots to plan for the development of Irish language broadcasting.
Mr McCausland said: “Having promised their die-hard supporters an all-encompassing Irish language act, the best they can manage is a central government bail-out for the Irish Language Broadcasting Fund.”
