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THE LEADERS OF the five main parties in Stormont have asked for a scheduled £1,000 pay increase be deferred, saying that they “share the broad public dismay”.
In a rare joint statement, the DUP, Sinn Féin, alongside the SDLP, the Ulster Unionist Party and Alliance, said that they all have a “range of concerns” about the recommendation of the Independent Financial Review Panel.
The independent body sets the rules on salaries and expenses for MLAs.
According to a report published in 2016, salaries for the North’s representatives should rise from £49,500 to £50,500.
The increase has prompted significant public anger in the North, with many venting frustration that MLAs could enjoy a pay rise only weeks after agreeing a deal to restore Stormont after three years of no government.
“The announcement yesterday of a proposed pay rise for MLAs came as a surprise to all parties. We share the broad public dismay at this development, only a matter of days after the Assembly and institutions have been fully restored,” the statement said.
“We are jointly asking the Assembly Commission that any pay proposal is immediately deferred until the work of the Financial Review Panel has been comprehensively reviewed, and a new panel has the opportunity to consider this matter again and produce a fresh determination,” the statement said.
Various MLAs have voluntarily said that they will donate the money to charity.
“We recognise that a number of MLAs and parties have indicated if the proposed pay increase cannot be halted, they will donate any additional sum to local causes and charities,” the parties said.
The row has been one of the first major tests for the five-party executive, which was formed in early January after weeks of negotiations, facilitated by the UK and Irish governments.
All parties have tried to distance themselves from the pay rise. On Twitter, Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill said that MLAs “had no input into this decision, nor did they seek it”.
“Given that the assembly has just been restored this is unjustifiable and should not be paid,” she said.
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Apart from illegal immigrants, who have been promised their own front door key and some landlords, the majority of people in the country have been ignored, used, and let down by our landlord politicians.
Hardly surprising that there is growing opposition to open door immigration and welfare for
all-comers when the government make no effort to look after our own.
It is really impossible now, after Roderick O’Gorman’s decision to translate his plans into multiple languages including the Georgian language, offering to provide asylum seekers with their “own-door” accommodation and “wrap-around supports, healthcare and education” on social media without having the infrastructure or finance to support it.
The reality is we are worse off than the last general election.
You reap what u sow after the crash construction workers and tradesmen were treated with contemt by the government lot emergrated some gave it up young lads now have no interest in construction as for bringing in foreign workers forget it no were for them or there families to live big mess
And won’t change by the following election either, regardless of who wins it!!
As someone else here mentioned, not enough builders and no indication of that changing. The last time we went on a building frenzy we imported the labour, they aren’t available anymore as every other developed country has a building shortage too.
Any politician who says they are going to solve the housing crisis is telling lies,
Regardless of what party or political persuasion.
@P.J. Nolan: Agree fully.
It’s going to get worse.
The situation will never improve with the rotating clown show that is going on. We’re the fools for putting them on the ballots at all.
Speculators including politicians buying up council land and then sitting on the property until it’s value increases by millions
“What we need is a vast scaling up of ambition”. Don’t make me laugh! There needs to be ambition there in the first place, something that is nonexistent in this current government.
A 100 years of lazy governments cannot be undone in 4 years
The ‘government’ (doesn’t matter who) has no interest in solving this.
@TG McMahon: we will never know when them bunch are repeatedly left in charge again and again and again
The uncomfortable truth that has to be accepted by everyone – but the general public particularly – is that our infatuation with home ownership is directly driving the housing shortage as much as any other factor. The development companies say it outright, there isn’t enough profit in it for them to build.
The fact we have people tripping over themselves to buy houses at 3, 4, 500k is being preyed on.. all stakeholders want their 20, 40k out of each house. It’s a rat race. Like healthcare is going, if you don’t jump to private you’ll be left behind.
We need to jump off this Hollywood train where a coffee is 12 euro and a haircut 60 because everyone is ‘entitled’ to be a business person and buying your own house is a status badge as much as anything else. ‘We’ have created and are maintaining the rod for our own backs, and the gameplayers are using it to full capacity with the backing of FFG. There is no possible happy ending on this track, we need to stop thinking just me, me, me and look at what we have collectively created. We are not Kardashian.
Housing and property is exactly why we have an open door policy on illegal immigration.
It is so companies like Cuckoo, Blackrock and other huge investment companies can maintain their asset prices ahead of any potential global financial crash. These companies are already taking a financial hit on all their commercial properties and the fear is that if there is another crash, all those family homes they have been buying out to bulk up their portfolios will also take a hit. It is no surprise that the government is now talking about converting office blocks into residential areas – this ensures that these companies boost the value of their commercial properties. I wonder how much of taxpayer’s money will be handed over in these refurbishments, most of which cost more to convert than if they were simply to build a new block of apartments? How much more of our public funds will be transferred to these private “shadow banks” as they are often referred to and more to the point, who will these apartments be for.
If there is another crash, these companies can no longer rely on quantitive easing, i.e. the central banks flooding the market with extra cash to keep their asset prices up, so how do you keep commercial and residential prices up in a failing economy? Oh, I know convert commercial to residential and simultaneously flood the country with a mass of people from all over the globe thus flooding the market with extra demand for housing. High demand plus low supply equals higher prices, che-ching!
On top of that, these companies won’t just secure high prices for their assets, but undoubtedly, in the interests of housing migrants, apartments and houses will be handed over to “asylum seekers” in the interest of “offering refuge”, whilst public money is used to subsidise or pay entirely for their rental costs, handing over further public funds to the same private interests in a double whammy of theft from the people – che-ching-che-ching!
But the government will look a whole lot different after it
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