MLAs’ 27% pay rise confirmed despite ‘overwhelmingly critical’ public response

A 27% pay rise for MLAs at Stormont has been confirmed by an independent body despite an “overwhelmingly critical” public response.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald described the pay increase as “absolutely excessive” while DUP leader Gavin Robinson said he did not think “it plays well at all”.

Pay for representatives at Stormont will rise from £53,000 to £67,200 per year, the Independent Remuneration Board has ruled following a two-week consultation involving MLAs and the Assembly Commission.

The uplift comes alongside the introduction of new financial sanctions meaning if an Executive is not formed after an election, MLA salaries would be reduced by 10% after six weeks, a further 10% at 12 weeks and another 10% after week 18.

Alan Lowry, chairman of the board, said they are “required to balance a number of issues – the importance and complexity of an MLA’s role, the financial viability of a political career and the levels of pay for political representatives in peer parliaments”.

He acknowledged that the public response had been “overwhelmingly critical”, with many “saying that this is not the right time to be tackling this issue”.

“It is clear that the system for considering MLA pay has not been working properly for 10 years, and any delay would only further exacerbate the situation,” he said.

Speaking at the Culloden Hotel after a meeting with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Ms McDonald said “the rise in MLAs’ pay should be consistent with public sector pay”.

“So we have said that, this is an independent panel that is now deliberating on this matter, they will make their decision known, but we have made our position absolutely crystal clear on this matter,” she said.

She added: “Any talk of £14,000 is absolutely excessive, and I understand why that is deeply frustrating and annoying for the general public, but I also know in circumstances where the cost of home heating oil has rocketed by 60% in a matter of weeks, the issue for people is how to keep their homes warm.”

Mr Robinson said he believes “it’s totally inappropriate that politicians should have a role in setting their pay, a role in determining their value or worth”.

“This independent process was established for the very reason of ensuring that politicians do not have that role, and just as I personally have no role in determining my pay in Westminster, then, nor should assembly members, so that decision has been taken,” he said.

Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said she was not going to defend “an unconscionably high rise”.

“I understand the rationale that the independent review body had in terms of wanting to peg the assembly and executive against other legislatures in these islands, but the reality is, other legislatures in these islands function and deliver and we struggle to do either of those things a lot of the time,” she said.

“So I think until we get that sorted, this kind of pay rise is not acceptable.”

She added: “I don’t believe, at a time when I had to wait until Christmas to be able to institute pay for police officers, that I should be seeing a 27% pay increase.

“It just doesn’t make sense, and it’s not helpful.

“It’s not helpful to political credibility, it’s not helpful to relationships and respect for democratic institutions, and I think it’s completely misguided.”

UUP leader Jon Burrows said he understands the public frustration and that the “performance of Stormont is not good enough”.

He added: “We’ve taken a strategic, ethical decision to have no input into our pay, that’s what other employees deal with, and whether the independent body recommended our payment up or down, we will stay out of that and keep doing our job.”

SDLP leader Claire Hanna said her party “don’t believe that you can reform any job with such a pay bump without key performance indicators”.

Reiterating her party’s commitment to reforming political institutions she said: “The potential to increase MLA pay is exactly the right time to get the mechanisms in place that mean that people can start to believe in Stormont again, because the visceral public reaction is precisely because people feel that Stormont doesn’t work for them.”