Scandalous Squander on Irish as Public Transport Goes to the Wall

Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:

“Yesterday at the Finance Committee I challenged officials on the budget allocation being sought by the First Ministers for the new Office of Identity and Cultural Expression and the Irish Language and Ulster Scots Commissioner.

“This is an office which is seeking an allocated budget of £11.5 million in 2021/2 and a total of over £28 million earmarked for it from now until 2022/23. Yet no business case has yet been approved. No value for money has been demonstrated.

“Contrast that with other Commissioners. The Victims Commission and the Commissioner for Older People both have a budget for this year of under a million. Are we really to believe that Irish and Ulster-Scots are worth many multiples of the resources which will be spent on Commissioners for older people and victims?

“Even the Equality Commission’s budget (£5.2 million) is dwarfed by this proposed spend.

“Lest there be any doubt about the reality of alleged discrimination against Irish speakers consider the following facts which I have obtained in recent days by way of Assembly questions:

• Over the past five years £144 million has been spent on Irish language schools
• In spite of claims by Comhairle na Gaelscolaiochta last week that this meant Irish language schools were being left behind, the funding per pupil is £3,821 in the Irish Medium sector compared with just £3,531 in the controlled sector – a gap of over 8% in the Irish Medium Sector’s favour
• We also have generous sums of public money going to Irish language groups. Lydia Irvine’s TURAS group which operates out of the East Belfast Mission received £167,096 over the past five years for example.

Note to editors

To ask the Minister of Education how much funding has been provided to the Irish language sector, in each of the last five years.

The total amount of funding, both resource and capital, which has been provided to the Irish language sector by my Department in each of the last five years is as follows:

Note: The figures for 2019-20 include allocations to date and therefore are subject to change.

To ask the Minister of Education to detail the level of funding per pupil in the (i) controlled; (ii) maintained; and (iii) Irish-medium sectors.

The levels of funding per pupil in 2019-20, distributed through the Common Funding Formula (CFF) only, in the (i) controlled; (ii) maintained; and (iii) Irish-medium sectors, are reflected in the table below.

To ask the First Minister and deputy First Minister to detail (i) all Irish language groups and organisations within that sector that are recognised and supported by the Department; and (ii) how much funding has been provided to each such group/organisation, either directly by the Department or through arm’s-length bodies, in each of the last five years.