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MLAs may be in line for £7,000 salary rise

Thursday, 26 November 2009

41 Stormont MLAs employed family members

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Assembly members can look forward to a pay hike of up to £7,000 under an official blueprint tabled at Stormont, the Belfast Telegraph can today reveal.

The proposed increase — drawn up by a powerful cross-party body — would be introduced after the 2011 Assembly election, some 18 months from now.

It would lift the annual MLA salary from its current level of £43,101 to a minimum of £48,575 and quite feasibly above the £50,000 mark.

Additional pay packets for Stormont ministers would also rise sharply, with the figure received by both the First Minister and Deputy First Minister jumping by at least £8,000.

The proposals have been compiled by the cross-party Assembly Commission, and are being circulated to MLAs ahead of a debate in Parliament Buildings next week.

Its report was to have remained confidential until then.

Under the blueprint MLA pay would remain frozen at the £43,101 level until after the 2011 election.

It would then jump to 75% of an MP’s wage. As things currently stand, this comes to £48,575. However, the MP figure will have been subject to two annual upratings by the time of the 2011 Stormont poll.

The Assembly Commission report states that if these upratings are worth 2% then the new MLA salary figure would be £50,538. That would represent a one-off increase of over 17%.

The level of 75% of MP pay was recommended in a report last year by the independent Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB). It proposed phased annual “catch-up” payments to reach the benchmark.

The Assembly Commission has instead opted to defer the entire increase to 2011.

Meanwhile, the Commission has shied away from radical reform of office-running and staffing expenses, meaning Stormont will be further out of step with practice at Westminster.

It is not recommending a ban on constituency office rental expenses being used to purchase a property asset for political parties, despite “broad” support among the parties for such a measure.

There are also no proposals on limiting the employment of family members by politicians, a key conclusion of the recent report from the MP expenses inquiry.

And there is no recommendation to outlaw MLAs claiming rental expenses for offices owned by relatives. MPs were barred from this practice several years ago.

Under the Assembly Commission’s plans, the First and Deputy First Minister salary would increase after the 2011 election from its current level of £71,434 to at least £79,754.

The annual pay of other Stormont Executive ministers would rise from £37,801 to a minimum of £41,370. Ministerial salaries are on top of MLA pay packets.

In its report, the Commission refers to submissions from the Assembly parties to its review.

It said there was “broad agreement” that MLAs should no longer be permitted to use constituency office rental expenses to fund the purchase of new premises for their parties.

“However, the Commission concluded that it would prove difficult to assess and enforce such a prohibition,” it added.

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27 Comments

Why wouldn't they get more money? They are paid to be Do Nothings and they have performed well.

I like the idea of them launching a new brand of gravy flavour called Laughing Stock Cubes.

Each cube could depict an MLA Do Nothing's picture, along with a list of their lack of achievments and the cube inside would be a replica head which would slowly dissolve to make the Laughing Stock.

Posted by man dingo | 29.11.09, 09:55 GMT

how can they have the neck on them to release information on a £7000 payrise a few days after the non sensical equal pay deal was announced - in reality - by them. £7k a year and they have the audacity to offer EO2's who have worked for the government for years a miserable £1700 for 5/6 years backpay. I think it is about time they took a long hard look at themselves - if they think they have made a fair offer to civil servants they need to think again. All AO's and AA's who are complaining about EO2's complaining - what do you think of this??? Read your offer - remember, we have been underpaid for more than 5/6 years

Posted by underpaid | 27.11.09, 08:48 GMT

Any chance they could be turning themselves into a laughing stock?

Now, does anybody in the Uk take the Assembly seriously?

Posted by paddy | 26.11.09, 20:11 GMT

Northern Ireland is over governed and its elected representatives overpaid. Minor boroughs in e.g. England need only one layer of local government for similarly sized populations, in local councils and the Assembly we have two layers. The assembly's huge number of MLA's and their salaries is a terrible waste of tax payer’s money and does not benefit the citizens one iota.

Posted by ian | 26.11.09, 18:00 GMT

This nonsense has got to stop. When will people wake up and realise the shower of spongers they have elected.

Posted by Mike | 26.11.09, 17:56 GMT

Can I suggest that we all write, telephone or email our MLAs and instruct them not to pass this unwarranted increase in salary? For those MLAs who do vote in favour of lining their own pockets, there is an election due in six months and I would urge everyone to vote against any double-jobbing MLA and against any who votes for this ridiculous pay rise.

Posted by Patrick Bishop | 26.11.09, 17:16 GMT

i really dont think we can complain about this! after all, we voted them in.

Posted by peter | 26.11.09, 17:10 GMT

Next time you get a chance to vote remember this disgusting stuff. Vote for anybody except your regular choice, vote for the small parties! Together we can kick these parasites out, only then will they fear the electorate in the way they do in the rest of UK & Ireland!

Posted by Farrah | 26.11.09, 15:53 GMT

Is this the money they stole from EOs in the civil service?
This just compounds our anger and disgust.

Posted by Get Real | 26.11.09, 14:39 GMT

I think this an absolute disgrace!!

Do they have no shame?? How many of them are getting more than one salary? This isn't their only source of income yet they expect a payrise of about HALF of what an AO in the NICS gets for a FULL YEARS WAGE!!

Totally disgraceful...

...Shame on them!!

Posted by N | 26.11.09, 14:14 GMT

Why?

Posted by Ryan | 26.11.09, 14:12 GMT

I am sitting in utter shock while reading this story. So our hard working MLA's can vote themselves a £7000 pay rise? Have they no shame at all? People all over this country are loosing their jobs, houses are being reposessed, the country is in recession. These lazy incompetent MLA's are a joke. What use do they have? They cannot aggree on what day of the week it is. Shameful!!!!

Posted by S | 26.11.09, 12:54 GMT

People.... It is us who by means of our voting on tribal politics that have given them their licence to operate this joke of a government. Will we think more carefully before the next elections.. maybe its time to give someone else a chance?

Posted by RB | 26.11.09, 12:54 GMT

This is why I agree with Voltaire. I would rather be governed by one lion of good breeding than a thousand rats of my own species.

Posted by hubris | 26.11.09, 12:53 GMT

This is disgraceful. How can MLA's be given a £7000 pay rise yet they have achieved nothing in 30 months of business. Lets look at what has not been achieved -
1. Maze Site
2. Policing and Justice Powers
3. Poverty Action Plan
4. Child Poverty
5. Modernisation Programmes
6. Mental Health Support
7. Clostridium Difficile / Hospital infections
8. Northern Ireland Water
9. Traffic Calming Measures
10. Road Infrastructure
11. Housing Executive
12. Social Housing Projects
13. Fuel Duty
14. Anti-Social Behaviour
15. Transfer Test
16. £370m savings
17. Bain report
18. Cohesion, Shared, Integration document
19. Too many MLA's
20. Too many Government departments
21. Back pay for lower grade Civil Servants
22. Fiddling of expenses
23. Abuse of children by religious organisations of all persuasions
24. Review of Public Administration
25. Presbyterian Mutual Society
26. Compensation from Libyan Government
27. Definition of a victim
28. Irish Language bill

Posted by Stormontspy | 26.11.09, 11:57 GMT

The ministers must be having a great laugh in Stormont. Civil Servants have had to battle for years to achieve an equal pay claim offer which is not in the same league as this one £7k A year. This hardly compares to the paltry sum EO2s where offered.
ONE RULE FOR US AND ANOTHER FOR THEM.
TIME THEY ALL "WISED UP"

Posted by home from the seas | 26.11.09, 11:52 GMT

Good job the pay increase is not performance related!!!

Posted by cd | 26.11.09, 10:56 GMT

It is always interesting that MP's & MLA's can make their own pay deals and regard themselves as being worthy of substantial pay rises while other public sector employees are told they cannot recieve a inflation based pay rise as it cannot be justified in the present economic climate. In fact it is suggested we take pay cuts. In our case the blatant greed of our double & triple jobbers is all the more distasteful when we see their failure to act as democratic representatives but instead continue to develop their personal power bases at the expense of progression of economic and social issues.

Posted by H Smith | 26.11.09, 10:51 GMT

You have got ot be joking. Get rid of stormont, ring fence the annual running costs to stay in Northern Ireland public spending and back to direct rule please.

Posted by Mark | 26.11.09, 10:50 GMT

This is an absolute disgrace!

How can these poor people survive on only an extra £7000, it's an awful situation. What with prices going up all the time, that's barely another £600/month.

I hope they reconsider, and offer themselves something more realistic - I'd hate to think of them struggling financially!

Posted by StephenM | 26.11.09, 10:39 GMT