British government should honour commitment over Irish language: Taoiseach

The British government should honour its commitment to introduce new legislation around the Irish language in Northern Ireland, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.

During leaders’ questions in the Dáil, Mr Martin also said that respect and esteem for the Stormont institutions had been weakened because of the repeated collapse of the powersharing Executive.

There had been an expectation that the Westminster government would introduce cultural legislation for Northern Ireland before the elections in May.

“When agreements are made, agreements should be honoured.”

It fell to the Northern Ireland Office after the Stormont parties were unable to agree to introduce cultural and language legislation in the Northern Ireland Assembly which was part of the New Decade New Approach (NDNA) deal.

The plans include an Office of Identity and Cultural Expression to promote respect for diversity as well as an Irish Language Commissioner and a commissioner to develop language, arts and literature associated with the Ulster Scots/Ulster British tradition.

However, Secretary of State Brandon Lewis told the Northern Ireland Affairs committee this week he did not believe it would be right to introduce legislation during an election period.

The Taoiseach was questioned on the issue on Tuesday by Aontú leader Peadar Tobin, who said the Good Friday Agreement had been “gutted”.

He added: “Brandon Lewis has said he will not bring forward Irish language legislation at Westminster before May’s assembly election.

“The Irish Language Act has been promised for 15 years.

“Sinn Féin returned to Stormont in January 2020 after previously collapsing it, because they said, they had achieved an Irish Language Act.

“In a combination of bad faith by London and naivety from Sinn Féin, we find out that that commitment was hocus pocus all along.”

Mr Martin said: “The secretary of state did commit to Sinn Féin that he would bring it in in the Westminster parliament.

“It is my view that promise should be fulfilled.

“When agreements are made, agreements should be honoured.”

The Stormont powersharing Executive collapsed earlier this year when the DUP withdrew Paul Givan as first minister in protest at the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol.

Mr Martin said a lot of work would be needed to restore the institutions following the Stormont elections in May.

He added: “The institutions should never be undermined, they should never be collapsed by any political party.

“If the people elect you to an Assembly, one should discharge your duties on behalf of the people for the full duration of that parliamentary cycle.

“Unfortunately the history of the Good Friday Agreement and of the Assembly and Executive is too often the default position has been to either withdraw from the Executive, to collapse the Executive when different crises emerges.

“That, I think, has been a fairly significant problem in terms of the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement which in turn has weakened peoples’ respect and esteem for the institutions.

“If you compare consistent surveys in terms of opinion of the Assembly versus the Scottish Assembly, there is a marked difference.

“I put forward the basis of that is that in Scotland there hasn’t been a similar interruption; the government is perceived to be working for its people.

“In the north it has just been interrupted too much by collapse and this recent collapse is unacceptable.”