Sinn Fein demand politicians have final say on failed Irish signs: All bids that don't make 15% threshold should see councillors 'use discretion' and potentially approve them anyway, argue nationalists
Sinn Fein has launched a push for politicians to have the final say on failed attempts to plaster Irish signs across Belfast streets.
Currently, all bids that don’t win the backing of at least 15% of residents are automatically discounted. Last night, the nationalists argued those should all come back to councillors for a final vote in which politicians can “use discretion” – potentially seeing them approved anyway.
The idea outraged the DUP, who branded it “ludicrous and undemocratic”. Sinn Fein insulted their stance, the nationalist party’s group leader on Belfast Council accusing unionists of being “fixated with” Irish signs as he brought forward a move that could essentially see politicians disregard the results of public votes if they fail to meet the threshold.
Last month a Sinn Fein councillor raised University Street, a busy residential area near Queen’s, where a bid to build Irish signs only had a little over 14% of people in favour. The councillor wanted it polled again – but last night, group leader Ciaran Beattie argued councillors should have the final say in all surveys that fail to make the 15% threshold.
He stated a 2014 judicial review of an old, stricter policy the council used to have concluded councillors “have discretion to go under” a much higher threshold that existed at the time.
“It’s a bit concerning why [streets that failed under the 15% rule] have not been brought to the committee to allow them to use discretion,” Mr Beattie said.
"That’s the reason we looked into it. University Street, 100% of respondents were supportive and yet that wasn’t going to come to committee for the committee to use discretion.
“We would like this to be brought into consideration as well, the judicial review made in 2014, and for that to be considered alongside the way we are currently applying our policy, because we think it is probably legally incorrect.”
The DUP’s Dean McCullough countered that it’s “the logical and democratic thing” to reject streets that fail to hit a threshold unionists already think is too low.
Turning to address Sinn Fein directly, he said: “You have the audacity to say that we’re fixated on a sign that you’ve brought forward at 15%, or whatever it is – and as if that wasn’t ludicrous enough, as if this policy wasn’t undemocratic enough, you now want to look at under 15%.
“Of all the issues in this city, is forcing through Irish street signs now at under 15% the priority of Sinn Fein?”
He added: “It is absolutely the definition of forced and undemocratic when a majority of residents overwhelmingly say ‘we do not want this sign’ and you say ‘we are going to erect this sign regardless’.”
During the meeting, DUP group leader Sarah Bunting pointed out that once a sign in any language other than English is built, there’s no way for residents to have it removed or changed to a different language in future. She suggested that could be built into the signs policy, resulting in outrage from Sinn Fein who felt it amounted to “removing minority rights”.
The current system started commissioning dual language signs in March 2023. Since then, more Irish signs have been approved than in 24 years of a previous policy; none have been built in other languages.