TENSIONS between the DUP and Sinn Féin appear to have increased over the removal of a £50,000 Irish language bursary scheme.
Just before Christmas, Communities Minister Paul Givan announced he was withdrawing funding for the Líofa Gaeltacht scheme.
First piloted in 2012, it enabled those on lower incomes to improve their Irish language skills at classes in the Donegal gaeltacht.
The announcement to remove the funding on December 23 provoked an angry reaction with former Sinn Féin arts minister Carál Ní Chuilín describing the move as "disgraceful" and showing "a hatred of Irish", while Executive junior minister Megan Fearon said she was "disgusted".
In his statement yesterday, Sinn Féin national chairman Declan Kearney cited the removal of the funding as an example of the DUP's poor behaviour in government.
"It’s increasingly obvious the DUP have lost the run of themselves within the northern political institutions," he said.
"The announcement from the DUP communities minister that he was cutting funds for the Líofa Gaeltacht bursary scheme just before Christmas was yet another example of this."
Sinn Fein's director of elections and Midlands North West MEP Matt Carthy also indirectly referenced the Líofa scheme in a new year's day speech.
"The political leadership of unionism remains steeped in sectarianism and pursues a deeply reactionary political agenda," he said.
"I would remind everyone that at no stage of the peace process or the construction of new political arrangements, did republicans sign up for the indefinite obstruction of political progress. We did not sign up for the denial of Irish language rights. Republicans did not sign up to upholding political institutions at the cost of basic civil and democratic rights," he added.
