Belfast City Council has approved £100,000 to increase dual-language street signage in the expanded Gaeltacht Quarter of the city. The decision was made at a full council meeting on Monday with support from Sinn Féin, the DUP and the SDLP.

The funding will support the second phase of a project that began in 2024 to erect street signs in both Irish and English. The boundary of the Gaeltacht Quarter has been officially extended to include Andersonstown, Shaws Road and Glen Road.

The first phase of the scheme in 2024 saw 764 dual-language signs erected across 301 streets in the area. The council adopted a blanket approach to process all streets in a single batch, which it estimated saved over £185,000 compared to a street-by-street full survey for the 309 streets originally identified.

Conradh na Gaeilge welcomed the cross-party ratification. Cuisle Nic Liam, language rights coordinator and chair of a local branch, said bilingual signage is an internationally recognised way to increase visibility of the Irish language, leading to normalisation and tolerance. She noted that over 90 per cent of placenames come from Irish, making the project a linguistic restoration. Nic Liam also welcomed the extension to the three new areas, adding that the scheme would reduce delays on applications across the city as hundreds remain unfulfilled since the 2022 policy change.