No Irish Language Act before Stormont election - Lewis

Northern Secretary Brandon Lewis had given a commitment that Westminster would introduce the law if the Stormont Executive failed to do by October last year.

The legislation was to have been part of a cultural package that would also have included Ulster Scots.

The election campaign will officially get under way at midnight, when the Assembly is dissolved. Voters go to the polls on 5 May.

The last elections in 2017 saw the DUP return with 28 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), just one ahead of Sinn Féin with 27.

The promised Act formed the basis for Sinn Féin agreeing to go back into the power-sharing administration at Stormont last June following the resignation of Arlene Foster as First Minister.

Her successor as DUP leader Edwin Poots was forced to resign after an internal party revolt over the language deal.

Sinn Féin said it was given a firm commitment that steps to introduce the legislation would begin if the Assembly failed to reach agreement on the issue by the end of September.

“If Acht Gaelige remains undelivered it represents a serious breach of yet another agreement by this Tory government.”

DUP sources said at the time that they warned the British government the party would walk away from the Assembly if there was a unilateral move on the Irish language before the dispute over the Northern Ireland Protocol was resolved.

Brandon Lewis has confirmed what Sinn Féin and many within the Irish language sector had suspected for some months - that the British government does not intend to legislate before the Assembly election on 5 May.

Speaking to members of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee at Westminster, the Northern Secretary said it would not be “right or proper to introduce legislation during the election period”.

He added: “I am focused on this, it is something we want to deliver, it is something we made a commitment on and it is a commitment I stand by.”

Sinn Féin’s leader in Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill, said the British government must honour its obligations.

“At every juncture they have decided not to prioritise this legislation, or to kick it further down the line to suit their own political agenda,” said the organisation’s President Paula Melvin.

“Brandon Lewis agreed and promised to deliver on the commitment of an Irish Language Act with accelerated passage by October 2021,” she said in a statement.

"That date passed without delivery or any credible defence from Brandon Lewis.

“If Acht Gaelige remains undelivered it represents a serious breach of yet another agreement by this Tory government.”

She also said there was an onus on the Irish Government “to stand up decisively for the rights of Irish language speakers”.

In a tweet, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said: “Pretty foolish to trust them in the first place tbh.”

The delay has been criticised by the Irish language rights group Conradh na Gaelige, which described the British government as “deceitful” and said it was bitterly disappointed but not surprised.

“At every juncture they have decided not to prioritise this legislation, or to kick it further down the line to suit their own political agenda,” said the organisation’s President Paula Melvin.

Conchúr Ó Muadaigh, its Advocacy Manager, described the delay as “an incredible insult”.

Mr Lewis also said that the Northern Ireland Protocol was “not sustainable” in its current format.

He said 200 businesses in Britain are not trading with Northern Ireland due to the post-Brexit trade arrangements.

He told the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee that supermarkets with no store in the Republic of Ireland have to go through the same checks as if they were moving goods into an EU country.

“That is not sustainable. It’s not appropriate within the internal market in the UK, it’s certainly not what is going to be able to function for the benefit of the people of Northern Ireland,” Mr Lewis said.

“These are all issues we need to resolve.”

Mr Lewis said businesses across Northern Ireland, with the exception of one sector, are “pretty unanimous that the protocol and the EU’s package offered last October doesn’t resolve the issues either”.

Talks between the UK and the EU over the protocol have not yielded a deal.

Mr Lewis told MPs that over the last six to nine months he has not seen “the pragmatism or flexibility” from the EU that would allow a deal, adding “otherwise we would have agreed one by now”.

There is strong opposition from unionists to the protocol, regarding additional checks on goods at Northern Ireland’s port as a border in the Irish Sea.

Paul Givan resigned as Stormont first minister earlier this year as part of the DUP’s opposition to the protocol, which also removed Michelle O’Neill as deputy first minister and left the Executive unable to fully function.

DUP MP Ian Paisley challenged Mr Lewis, saying: “The talk is very strong but I think most people wonder when is some action going to actually flow from that.”

Mr Lewis said the UK government has not yet triggered Article 16, which would suspend some elements of the post-Brexit arrangements, because ministers want to find agreement for better stability and certainty for businesses.

“I appreciate your point about where does patience run out, our view is we will strain every last sinew to do this by agreement with the EU, and that’s the work that is continuing,” he told MPs.

Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie has predicted he will lose votes over his move to withdraw from anti-Northern Ireland Protocol rallies.

Mr Beattie was commenting after his constituency office was vandalised hours after he announced that his party was stepping away from the controversial loyalist demonstrations against Brexit’s Irish Sea border.

The Upper Bann MLA insisted he would not be deterred after a window was smashed at the property in Portadown, Co Armagh.

“I won’t lie for a vote, and if I lose votes I will lose votes,” Mr Beattie said.

Yesterday evening, the UUP leader claimed anti-protocol rallies were being used to whip up tensions in Northern Ireland.

He linked the increasing political volatility to an upsurge in paramilitary activity, including a bomb hoax at an event attended by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, in north Belfast on Friday.