Member's statement: Dual-language Street Signage

Member's statement by Mr Phillip Brett on 10 March 2025.

MLA

Mr Phillip Brett

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

10 March 2025

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Dual-language Street Signage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4840855

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I associate myself with Mr Kelly's remarks. As a Crusaders man, it is hard for me to say it, but congratulations to Cliftonville on the win yesterday. I raise the farcical issue of Belfast City Council's dual-language street-sign policy and abuse of the democratic processes at Belfast City Council. Just last week, survey results were returned for two streets in my constituency. A majority of residents who responded to that consultation opposed the introduction of dual-language street signage in their street. You would think that the parties opposite would respect the will expressed by those residents. Of course, that was not the case: the parties opposite overturned the democratically expressed view and imposed Irish street signs, despite the residents of the street rejecting them. Belfast City Council spends hundreds of thousands of pounds carrying out surveys of residents. I pay tribute to the Alliance Party, which has been true to its word on the issue: when a majority of residents expresses an opinion, it supports that opinion. That is also the position that this party adopts. If a majority of residents of a street expresses a desire to have street signs in another language, that should be supported. What should not happen is for local residents to be asked to have their say and, then, for politicians to completely ignore that. In Sunningdale Park North and Ben Madigan Park South, residents were surveyed three times. Not content with the first answer, the parties opposite asked that we resurvey them. A majority of residents again responded to say, "No, we do not want dual-language street signs". On the third time that they went out, it was rejected again by local residents. Instead of surveying them again, the parties opposite, which claim to champion equality and democracy, simply said, "We will no longer ask the residents what they want. We will ignore their wishes and implement the signage regardless".

If this were a unionist-dominated council, the response of the majority of residents was that they wanted a dual-language street sign, but unionist councillors opposed the will of the street, the front pages of the newspapers would say that Ministers should be dragged before the Chamber, and so-called equality organisations, which are publicly funded, would be out in droves. However, there has not been a single word on the issue. That exposes the myth that those who sit opposite stand, as they claim, for equality and democracy.

404 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Qualifying Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:02 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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