'NI politicians are taking the public for fools over proposed MLA pay hike' - Gerry Carroll
"No other worker with an attendance rate of 60% would be awarded with a 38% pay increase."
Gerry Carroll is a People Before Profit MLA in the Northern Ireland Assembly, representing West Belfast. He topped the polls in the 2016 election, picking up more than 8,000 votes.
It looks like most of the legislation that the Stormont Executive planned to introduce this mandate won’t see the light of day . But a bill that paves the way for an MLA pay hike has been progressed at breakneck speed, by politicians who are taking the public for fools.
When the Remuneration Board Bill was first introduced to the Assembly in February, MLAs were at pains to point out that creating this board wouldn’t lead to a pay hike for politicians.
But the evidence suggests otherwise. In a briefing to the Audit Committee back in December, the Assembly Commission said it was “highly likely that a Remuneration Board will increase Members’ salaries” . To no one’s surprise, when the draft Bill was published, it included a provision that the Board “must have regard” to salaries payable to other politicians in the House of Commons, the Scottish Parliament, Senedd Cymru, Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann.
MLAs have a basic salary of £52,500, while our Scottish and Welsh counterparts take home over £70,000. MPs are paid a minimum of £93,900, and the basic salary for a TD is over €115,000.
This confirmed what the rest of us already knew; Stormont politicians are paving the way to award themselves a massive pay increase, under the guise of independence and objectivity.
If MLA pay is brought into line with Scotland and Wales, this would mean a 38% pay increase. This is completely at odds with the everyday experience of the constituents I and other MLAs were elected to represent.
Band 3 Health and Social Care workers and Administrative Officers in the Civil Service are paid around £24,000 per year. Hundreds of thousands of retail and hospitality workers struggle to get by on poverty wages and zero hour contracts.
Last year, the UK Pay Review Body recommended an increase of 5.5% for health and social care workers. It took months of lobbying and the prospect of industrial action for the Health Minister to finally accept that recommendation. This year, a pay offer of 5.5% for further education lecturers falls far short of pay parity with teachers in schools.
Public opinion on MLA pay is clear and resounding. A petition opposing a potential pay increase has attracted over 1,300 signatures. Almost 70% of respondents to a call for evidence on the Bill disagreed or strongly disagreed with the proposal to look to other legislatures when setting MLA salaries. But despite the wishes of the public, this clause remains in the Bill.
My own amendment attempted to limit any increases to no more than Consumer Price Index inflation - but this was voted down by Executive parties and the official Opposition.
When this Bill has been discussed in the media, the debate often centres around attracting the ‘best’ kind of people for the job. Supporters of a massive pay increase ask who would leave a well-paid job in the private sector, taking a substantial pay cut to enter politics? But the actions of Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Rachel Reeves are proof that a high-flying career prior to entering politics is no guarantee of high-quality public service as an elected representative. In fact, it’s the polar opposite.
To do our jobs properly, elected representatives should have a material understanding of the lives and experiences of our constituents. On current basic pay of £53,000, how can MLAs credibly claim to represent people who are struggling every day to heat their homes, pay their rent or mortgage, access basic healthcare and put food on the table? This is why I take no more than the median wage for full-time employees in the North.
An MLA is not worth two teachers. An MLA is not worth three retail or hospitality workers. The Executive has been in a state of collapse for 40% of its existence. No other worker with an attendance rate of 60% would be awarded with a 38% pay increase. This is why I will continue to oppose any attempt by MLAs to line their own pockets.
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