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Agriculture officials flagged up language obligations to DUP minister </h1>
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The name of fisheries boat 'Banríon Uladh' was changed to 'Queen of Ulster'</figcaption>
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Connla Young
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<time class="gmail-lancio-datetime-string" datetime="19-03-2018 01:00">
19 March, 2018 01:00</time>
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<h2 class="gmail-title">Topics</h2>
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<li class="gmail-"><a href="https://www.irishnews.com/tags/Daniel-Holder">Daniel Holder</a></li>
<li class="gmail-"><a href="https://www.irishnews.com/tags/Michelle-McIlveen">Michelle McIlveen</a></li>
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<div class="gmail-related-extra__caption">Michelle McIlveen</div>
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<p>A FORMER DUP minister was told by officials of her department’s
obligation to recognise Irish and Ulster-Scots months after she claimed
it had adopted “single language policy”.</p>
<p>Details emerged after the Department of Agriculture, Environment and
Rural Affairs (DAERA) was forced to provide documents, including a copy
of its draft language policy, to the Committee on the Administration of
Justice (CAJ).</p>
<p>The documents reveal that officials reminded Michelle McIlveen of her
department’s obligations to minority languages under its own equality
scheme and the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages.</p>
<p>Ms McIlveen controversially ordered the name of a fisheries
protection vessel to be changed from the Irish Banríon Uladh to its
English language version Queen of Ulster in 2016.</p>
<p>The boat was originally named by then Sinn Féin agriculture minister Michelle Gildernew after it was bought in 2010.</p>
<p>Asked to explain the move, Ms McIlveen said that “DAERA is a new
department with a fresh identity and logo and adopts a single language
policy.”</p><div class="gmail-banner-container gmail-text-center"></div>
<p>The department had previously refused to provide a copy of the draft
language policy document to CAJ until ordered to hand it over by the
Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) earlier this year.</p>
<p>DAERA has since apologised to the ICO, saying that "it was unable to
state with certainty when the information was created, but confirmed
that it was first saved to its electronic records management system in
November 2016”.</p>
<p>The draft policy states that “for the administration of its functions
the principal language of (DAERA) is English” but also makes provision
for the use of Irish and Ulster-Scots.</p>
<p>However, the draft policy was not implemented by Ms McIlveen before the collapse of the assembly in January 2017.</p>
<p>CAJ deputy director Daniel Holder said: "In this submission officials
correctly and professionally set out to the minister legal and broader
advice that shows why you can't have a 'single language policy', not
least because of duties on the department through its equality scheme
and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.</p>
<p>"We are owed an explanation from the minister as to why she then did
not sign off on a policy that met basic legal minimum requirements
before leaving office."</p>
<p>A spokesman for DAERA said: "We will not be commenting further on this matter."</p>
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<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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