Statement by TUV deputy leader Court Councillor Ron McDowell:
“Yesterday’s protest at Grand Central in Belfast was another attempt by Irish language enthusiasts to bully others to accept nationalist cultural supremacy.
“As usual, they cynically thrust children to the fore to try and impose an Irish cultural identity on everything from bins to busses without regard for the cost either to the taxpayer or to good relations in the city.
“Translink need to stand firm on this issue and not allow themselves to be bullied by a small but vocal minority. Statistics are stubborn things and the key one to remember in this debate is that from the 2021 census which told us that just 0.3% of people in Northern Ireland has Irish as their main language. For context, that compares with 1.1% for Polish and 0.5% for Lithuanian.”