Legal context of Ireland's road signs
Irish road sign design in legal context
The law
Alongside the design context of Ireland’s road signs, the sign system lives in the context of national legislation. But as the design context has changed – not least with our first national high speed roads nearing completion – the legislative context has also changed.
The issue of prominence
The Government’s Statement on Language promises equal status for Irish but the reality of our road signs effectively renders it a secondary language.
The first shall be last?
In the Official Languages Act 2003, (Section 9) Regulations 2008, special care is taken to ensure Irish is principally prominent in signs…
(2) The following provisions shall apply to a sign in the Irish and English languages placed at any location in the State by a public body:
- the text in the Irish language shall appear first,
- the text in the Irish language shall not be less prominent, visible or legible than the text in the English language,
- the lettering of the text in the Irish language shall not be smaller in size than the lettering
- of the text in the English language,
- the text in the Irish language shall communicate the same information as is communicated by the text in the English language.
Opt-out clause
But the legislation provides an ‘opt-out’ for road signs. Irish is described as “a fully fledged modern European language” in the Government’s Statement on Language(1827kb PDF file) Surely, a modern and living language should not be ‘ghettoised’ and Irish place names deserve to be read as easily as English.
Not an ‘either-or’ decision
If we can improve the readability and effectiveness of the English place names simultaneously, improving the sign system for all users, this makes a compelling argument for change.