Aontú: " it is wrong to stop developments or progress on those issues because of the Irish language act.”

Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín has challenged the wisdom of a Sinn Féin demand that an Irish language act must first be conceded by the DUP before the party would agree to reinstatement of the Northern Executive and Assembly.

Mr Tóibín was speaking in Belfast on Tuesday when he launched the Aontú Westminster general election manifesto.

Aontú which campaigns centrally on being anti-abortion, and seeking Irish unity and economic justice, is standing seven candidates in Foyle, East Derry, West Tyrone, South Down, West Belfast, South Belfast and Newry and Armagh.

The election is being held against the backdrop of a crisis in the Northern Ireland health service. At present there are 300,000 people on waiting lists and 10,000 outpatient appointments and surgeries cancelled in Belfast due to industrial action by nurses and other hospital workers.

Asked was Sinn Féin right to stay out of Stormont until it had a guaranteed Irish language act – one of its key demands – Mr Tóibín replied that such an act must be legislated for. But he then added there was shock “in many ways that the Irish language is being used to hold so many other really important issues hostage”.

Mr Tóibín said “there are bread and butter, life and death concerns that are consuming the people of the North of Ireland . . . it is wrong to stop developments or progress on those issues because of the Irish language act.”