UTV today declined to comment on claims it could pay staff facing redundancy salaries of £28,000 — if its top five executives gave up their bonuses.

As the station refused to respond to a multi-party barrage of criticism from MLAs, it also remained unclear whether UTV will agree to the Assembly demand to delay its 35 planned redundancies.

The Assembly this week called on UTV to suspend its restructuring and redundancy programme pending the outcome of a consultation by the industry regulator Ofcom “and following meaningful consultation and negotiations with the trade unions”.

DUP MLA Jim Shannon said the question of staff being reduced from 118 to 83 was “just a wee bit absurd” given the bonuses paid to senior executives.

“When one considers that, had the top five executives not taken bonuses and had they made do with salaries of approximately £320,000, the £200,000 in bonus and benefits that they each received would have paid each of the redundant workers an average wage of £28,000 a year — a tidy salary by any means,” he said.

A UTV spokeswoman said today management had decided not to make any comment. As the Belfast Telegraph first revealed, Sinn Fein SDLP, UUP, Alliance and PUP leaders joined with the DUP’s Peter Robinson in demanding a ‘stay of execution’ on the redundancies.

The SDLP’s Pat Ramsey accused UTV of adopting a dumbing down strategy.

Ulster Unionist David McNarry, said: “UTV has opted for a near-40% cut in public-service broadcasting; from nine hours a week to five and a half hours a week. However, that is too much too soon. Those cuts are hitting areas that are important to the democratic process.”

Alliance deputy leader Naomi Long said: “It is essential to retain UTV as a strong regional broadcaster and as competition for the BBC.”

Sinn Fein’s Raymond McCartney said: “There is no doubt that the staff at UTV believe that the management is using the Ofcom review as a means of introducing staffing cutbacks and other issues.”

UTV MD Michael Wilson said earlier this month: “We have always over-produced our production quota and it is most likely we will continue to over-deliver the types of programmes our audience most want.”