Irish signs on hold: Belfast Council calls in lawyers over Sinn Fein push that would make them almost impossible to oppose

Currently the city council surveys individual streets after a request for dual language signage from either a householder or a local councillor.

If at least 15% of residents say they want the second language, it will be built. The issue has a been a long-running bugbear for unionists, who believe that threshold is too low – but Sinn Fein want it made even easier to get signs constructed.

The nationalist party argues that only those who respond to surveys of streets should count, not the total number of residents. They want it so, for example, if 100 people live on a given road out of whom nine vote in favour of Irish signs and one votes against, that counts as 90% of the street supporting them.

The council is now seeking legal advice on the matter. According to documents due to be presented to a meeting tomorrow night, all decisions on dual language signs have been paused until the opinion of lawyers comes in – though street surveys will still be issued.

Sinn Fein has complained that using residents of an area instead only respondents to surveys is wrong, an interpretation the party arrived at after several streets in nationalist areas failed to make the 15% threshold due to apparent disinterest among householders, too few of them replying to surveys to make the cut.

But if the residents versus respondents debate works out in Sinn Fein’s favour, one knock-on effect will be that Irish signs become almost impossible to oppose.

To pick one recent controversy, the nationalists this year attempted to push Irish onto Stormont Park in east Belfast. More than two-thirds of the street voted against the idea, but it scraped over the 15% threshold by a fraction of a percentage point. If only respondents were counted, around one in five would have backed Irish signs – putting it comfortably over the line.

Indeed, virtually the only way to have more than 85% of respondents opposing Irish signs, which would be necessary to defeat an application, would be to get almost full turnout and that’s unheard of when it comes to dual language polls.

The pause in decision is part of a review into the council’s signs policy which is due to be formally launched at tomorrow night’s council meeting.

The review is also to check into an issue that's holding up bids to build Ulster Scots signs on two east Belfast streets that failed to make the 15% mark for Irish.

Additional applications for Irish were filed after the failed ones, with council officers suggesting those should be discounted and surveys issued for Ulster Scots. Sinn Fein wants the streets retested for Irish first, with the review to decide what should be done in such cases.

Since the 15% threshold came into force three and a half years ago, more Irish signs have been constructed than in over 20 years of a previous tougher system, and no signs in any language other than Irish have gone up.

Currently there are no ways to have a dual language sign removed once it’s built, and no method to get a third language added.