Assembly wage hike branded a “disgrace”

Plans to raise Northern Ireland Assembly members’ salaries by £5,000 have been a branded a “disgrace” by one Stormont assembly representative.

In a scathing attack on the executive role of the Northern Ireland Assembly, UKUP Assembly Member Robert McCartney said the Assembly had only sat 128 days in two and a half-years and that it had passed little or no meaningful legislation to merit such a hike.

Speaking during a BBC Radio Ulster interview Mr McCartney said: “In the last two years they have only sat for 128 plenary days. It is as someone said, golden handcuffs.”

He added: "The British Government is feeding them so well that there is absolutely no way that those political pigs will get their noses out of the trough, while the trough is kept replenished."

The Alliance Party leader and assembly member David Ford agreed that members were not doing enough work to justify a huge pay rise: "We have highlighted the inadequacies of the executive, because we have had so little legislation to pass and because of the amount of times we have had just one plenary session a week.

"I think it would be difficult to justify to the people of Northern Ireland that we are really doing the job that we were elected to do, so far."

Sinn Féin's Chief whip Alex Maskey said: “It is vital that the Assembly delivers value for money.

“We scrutinise all Executive departments to make sure that scarce resources are well spent. We should demand nothing less of Assembly members.

“It is important that political representatives are able to carry out their jobs effectively, but salaries of £45,000 will not appear to be good value for money to the many people living on low incomes on the six counties.”

(AMcE)