One Man and His Jobs?!
Tuesday 28 August 07
One man and his jobs?!
When a lot of our politicians are working more than one job how can we rely on them to effectively work for us the people of Northern Ireland?
All 108 members of the Northern Ireland Assembly are in line for at least another £10,000 a year. Their pay will rise on the 8th of May from £32,000 to £41,000 a year.
After the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2002 the normal pay had fallen below the regional administrations in Scotland and Wales. The Scottish parliament gets a basic salary of £53,000, and in Wales the basic pay is about £46,000. The Northern Ireland Assembly members agreed that they could not justify a pay rise after the suspensions, so their money drop to the £32,000 it is now...
But many members will be earning more than the basic rate of £41,000 after the pay rise. When a lot of the assembly members are also working as MPs and councillors and getting paid for it, it makes you wonder how they’re able to effectively do one job let alone all three. Some MLAs also receive extra money, below are the figures:
· An extra £10,000 to those who chair committees and an extra £5,000 to the Deputy Chair person.
· The 10 minsters and the speaker will earn between £77,000 to £110,000.
· Those members also getting MPs salaries of an extra £60,000 a year.
· And free travel and accommodation.
· And a car a driver to the Minister and speaker.
The members who receive pay for being an MP do have their pay reduced by two thirds from their Stormont pay, but that leaves at least £73,000!
The pay range is from a generous £41,000 to a whopping £144,000 per year which is earned by DUP party leader Ian Paisley who not only works as an MLA, but also as an MP and gets paid as Rev. Ian paisley in his church.
Sinn Fein have a policy, however, that their members are paid no more than the average industrial wage including the minister Martin McGuiness who gives most of his money back to the party.
What’s going on here?, that’s so much money and have they done anything yet? Can they be counted on to work hard for us when they are able to have two other jobs on top of the full time job of being an MLA?
What do you think tell us your thoughts, do you agree with Sinn Fein’s policy? Do you feel that they can work as many jobs in parliament as they like? Do you think they shouldn’t be even getting that much in the first place or do you feel the pay is reasonable?
