British prime minister Gordon Brown has pledged £6 million (€7.6 million) to secure the future of Irish language broadcasting in Northern Ireland.
Sinn Féin said Mr Brown confirmed he would provide support for the threatened Irish Language Broadcast Fund during a meeting with Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness at Stormont yesterday.
The future of the project, which was created out of the Belfast Agreement, had been unclear after a failure to secure substantial funding beyond 2009.
Foras na Gaeilge chief executive Ferdie Mac an Fhailigh welcomed the pledge of funding, which he said “would help to support television production companies to produce top class programming in Irish in Northern Ireland.”
A total of £12 million has already been pumped into the fund since 2005 with a target of achieving 75 additional hours of Irish language programmes on screens per year.
Sinn Féin leaders raised the matter with the prime minister during talks at Downing Street earlier this month.
Yesterday, during his visit to Stormont Castle with US President George Bush, Mr Brown said he would provide £6 million support from the Treasury.