Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin row over funding for Irish-English sign project

A row has broken out between the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin over funding a project which helps councils with Irish-English street sign translations. DUP Communities Minister Gordon Lyons denied cutting the £90,000 annual funding and said it had been funded for the past four years by the Department of Finance (DoF). The DoF said responsibility for the Northern Ireland Place-Name Project had been transferred in 2022 with the understanding the Department for Communities would be responsible for the longer-term funding. Later on Tuesday, the Economy Department said its minister Caoimhe Archibald had instructed officials to engage with Queen's University Belfast about the project. The project is based at the university and was set up in the 1980s to research the origins and meanings of local place names across Northern Ireland. The Economy Department has responsibility for higher education. Earlier, Sinn Féin's Colm Gildernew had called on Lyons to appear before the assembly to explain the funding issue. Gildernew, who is the chairman of Stormont's communities committee, said he had raised concerns about it earlier this year and was told it would continue into the sum