An MLA claimed £950 from his taxpayer-funded expenses for an office chair, Assembly records have shown.

The expenses claim by Ian Paisley Jnr is one of a number obtained by the Belfast Telegraph, as part of an ongoing push for openness at Stormont.

Details of expenditure by other MLAs published today also include a £540 projector, payments to political parties and £318 for a camera plus printer.

Further Freedom of Information (FOI) requests from this newspaper on other politicians’ office expenses are currently in the Assembly system.

Mr Paisley Jnr’s chair purchase was made in 2001, the Assembly disclosed. More recently, Mr Paisley Jnr and his father claimed over £2,000 between them for “100 stacking chairs”.

Their Ballymena constituency office includes a large meeting room used by their party. The mortgage for this office is being paid off by taxpayers through MLA rental expenses.

Assembly members can currently each claim some £72,500 a year on office-running costs.

Details of claims made and approved under this system have included:

• Sinn Fein Minister Michelle Gildernew paid £14,000 in secretarial and research costs to her party in a single year.

She is also renting constituency premises owned by South Tyrone Sinn Fein. Her rental expenses from the Assembly for this address in Dungannon add up to £15,600 per year. A Sinn Fein spokesman said the local party organisation uses the money for constituency services.

• Ulster Unionist MLA Tom Elliott's office expenses in 2007/08 included a £540 digital projector and £285 on carpeting. The new carpet was for his office in Enniskillen which he rents within premises owned by his party.

Mr Elliott said the projector is mainly used at Stormont.

“It’s used quite often. Obviously, we would have quite a lot of presentations by constituents with departments. We use it for them,” he added.

• SDLP MLA Tommy Gallagher’s office expenses for 2007/08 included £318 for a camera, accessories and printer, plus a £900 payment to his party for “press office assistance”.

Mr Gallagher said uses for the camera involved local events and press, as well as at planning site meetings.

On the press office payment, he said he understood all his SDLP colleagues made a contribution to the party.

“Being in Belfast three days a week, it’s necessary to have support and advice from the party press personnel,” he added.

• DUP MLA Ian Paisley Jnr claimed £950 from the office expenses system in October 2001 for a “Britannia chair (high)”, the Assembly stated. Two months later, he claimed a further £600 for a “Mahogany 3 drawer filer”.

In September 2007, he and his then First Minister father made a joint office furniture claim totalling £3,682.

This involved 100 stacking chairs (£2,297), two desks costing some £60 between them and a “boardroom table, side board and 12 chairs” for £1,324.

The two Paisleys share an office in Church Street, Ballymena, rented at taxpayers’ expense from a DUP-linked company called Sarcon 250.

Their combined rental expenses of £57,200 a year are being used to pay off the mortgage on the premises. An official report last month said the rental total was “significantly” above the normal market level but did not break any Assembly rules.

The Ballymena office includes a first floor meeting room, which is used by the north Antrim DUP.

Responding to the Belfast Telegraph on his furniture expenses, a spokesman for Mr Paisley Jnr yesterday said: “Every item of furniture for the office in Ballymena, purchased nearly a decade ago, is still used today.

“As for the stackable-chairs which seem to have caused so much excitement: these chairs are used for a range of constituency purposes by local community groups and by constituents holding meetings in the office.

“The secure filing cabinet is used to retain sensitive information even in the eventuality of the offices being burgled.

“Mr Paisley uses his allowances to provide a first class constituency service. It is rather sad that at a time when people are concerned about their jobs, homes and keeping a roof over their heads the major focus of one of Northern Ireland’s leading newspapers seems to be on decade old bills for office furniture.”