Sinn Fein has welcomed Belfast City Council's decision to increase the grant to the annual St Patrick's Day march fivefold. The council sub-committee in charge of tourism and promotion of the city has awarded £50,000 to the parade.
However, the funding must be approved by a full council meeting which takes place next month. The Sinn Fein councillor for South Belfast, Mr Sean Hayes, said: "This funding to the St Patrick's Day parade is to be welcomed.
"It is also entirely justified. It is only right that the council plays a full role in support events like the parade. We hope to have the largest and most colourful parade that there has ever been in Belfast."
Mr Hayes said the thousands of people who took part in last year's event showed "the way the parade can unite the people of this city".
However, Mr Frank McCoubrey, an Ulster Democratic Party councillor for the Shankill, said he hoped next year's parade would not be "hijacked" by republicans.
He said that he would like to see people from both sections of the community celebrate St Patrick's Day, but the hundreds of Tricolours at this year's march had alienated many loyalists.
An Ulster Unionist councillor, Mr Jim Rodgers, said he had no objections to the idea of a St Patrick's Day parade but that it must be non-sectarian.
