MLA pay: NI's five main parties want pay rise deferred

Party leaders issued a joint statement

Stormont's five main party leaders have asked that a £1,000 pay rise in MLAs' salaries is "immediately deferred".

MLAs' pay is due to rise from £49,500 to £50,500 but the five leaders jointly asked the Assembly Commission to halt this until the decision is reviewed.

Stormont's Speaker Alex Maskey has now called commission members to a meeting on Thursday to discuss the issue.

The current rules on MLAs' salaries and expenses were set by the Independent Financial Review Panel (IFRP) in 2016.

Stormont's devolved government collapsed the following year and the panel's members terms later expired, but the IFRP's determination from 2016 still applies.

'Broad public dismay'

That determination provides MLAs with a £500 annual increase to their salaries, but pay rises were blocked while devolution was suspended after a request from the Assembly Commission to the then Secretary of State Karen Bradley.

With devolution restored, MLAs are due to automatically receive a £1,000 uplift - for the two years they did not get the additional money while Stormont was not running.

However, many of the 90 MLAs have said they did not have any input into this decision and have offered to donate the money to charity.

The assembly sat for the first time in three years on 11 January

In a joint statement on Wednesday, the five main party leaders said: "We share the broad public dismay at this development, only a matter of days after the Assembly and institutions have been fully restored.

"We have had a range of concerns over time around recommendations emerging from the Independent Financial Review Panel.

"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.

"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."

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On Wednesday evening, a spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Assembly said: "The Speaker is mindful of the concerns expressed by the five main political parties in relation to the Independent Financial Review Panel's inflationary increases to MLA salaries arising from its 2016 determination.

"He has therefore invited Assembly Commission members and those members who are due to be appointed to the commission, to attend a meeting tomorrow afternoon, to discuss how those concerns might be addressed."

'Unjustifiable'

The IFRP was established by the Assembly Commission in 2011 to make independent determinations in relation to MLAs' salaries, allowances and pensions.

Under its 2016 determination, MLAs are due to receive another £500 rise in April 2020, unless the assembly establishes another mechanism to deal with MLA pay.

Earlier, the DUP and Sinn Féin both said they would look at ways to stop the £1,000 pay increase.

Sinn Féin vice president Michelle O'Neill said it was "unjustifiable".

The DUP said it was "totally opposed" to it, "in light of the very recent restoration of the assembly".

The DUP and Sinn Féin said they would explore ways to stop or return the pay rise

The DUP said it supported "the concept that pay levels should be entirely independent of any MLA input".

However, the statement added: "We are currently examining options to see whether this rise can be returned and if not then it is the view of our members that they will not keep any additional salary but instead support local causes."

Speaking on BBC NI's Good Morning Ulster, Economy Minister Diane Dodds said: "Whoever thought that this was a good thing to do, at this particular juncture, was way off the mark.

"It is incredibly unfortunate that this has jarred with the start of what has been quite a positive opening to the assembly."

Ms O'Neill tweeted on Tuesday that assembly members had "no input into this decision, nor did they seek it".

In a statement on Wednesday, the party said it was "actively exploring options to stop it".

"If that's not possible then we'll see if the money can be returned to public funds or donated to charity," it added.

This is quite the move by the party leaders.

While it's clear they are doing this to try to curtail some of the public ire, how they are going about it might make some uncomfortable.

MLAs stopped having an input into how their pay is set in 2011, when the independent body was established.

Under the law, it states that the panel should not be "subject to the direction or control of" the Northern Ireland Assembly, or the Assembly Commission.

But this statement is an indication that the politicians want to undo - or at least review - what the panel decided almost four years ago.

The situation is complicated by fact that the panel members' terms of office were allowed to expire and no action was taken to replace them.

It is now over to the Assembly Commission - made up of the Speaker and five members from the main parties - to respond.

West Belfast MLA Gerry Carroll has criticised the pay increase

All 12 SDLP MLAs said they would be donating their pay rises to charity.

People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll said it was "a slap in the face to nurses who stood on freezing pickets for months for pay parity, and the civil service staff who are still taking industrial action to get what they deserve".

Mr Butler, the UUP's Chief Whip, said in a Facebook post he would be donating the salary increase to a number of charities.

"Just for clarity, there is no way to refuse this pay increase. It is automatic. It was not voted on by MLAs," he added.

The Alliance Party said it was "working with other party leaders to find a means to defer this".

'Entirely justified'

The former chair of the IFRP, Pat McCartan, said the determination in the 2016 report still applies.

"It did provide for a basic salary of an MLA of £49,000 with a less than 1% increase per annum of £500 provided inflation was running at more than 1%," he said.

"Now, when you roll that up, that is why you get the current level of salaries and it is entirely justified through the whole method that we use with job evaluation, pay comparison, and looking at all other legislatures in these islands.

"These are the lowest paid legislatures, whether they actually legislate or not is a matter for the electorate."