Turning down a pay offer
I'm off to Stormont Castle this morning for an Executive meeting on the credit crunch. We are not bracing ourselves for a Kieran McCarthy style mortgage pay off plan, but there may be some announcements on pulling construction projects forward. Other proposals will be worked on over the next fortnight, pending Assembly approval next month.
A report from the Senior Salaries Review Body on MLAs' pay and pensions is expected soon. As I reported on the radio this morning, in the current climate, MLAs aren't likely to accept a rise. In the spring I saw an internal Assembly document which predicted that the SSRB would propose a 16% increase to bring MLAs up to the level of their counterparts elsewhere in the UK. But I haven't heard anyone demur from the view of one Assembly source who told me yesterday it would be "crazy" to accept any increase.
UPDATE: It's 18:47 and I've just finished broadcasting on Evening Extra and making sure Arlene Foster got on BBC Newsline. The Titanic Quarter Signature Project, which the Executive has decided to fund, is certainly an eye-catching proposal. From the tourist perspective it's a "no brainer", to borrow Lord Rooker's phrase, to get it ready for the centenary in 2012. There remains an extraordinary level of international attraction to the tragic story of the ship that hit the iceberg. So can it provide a lifeboat for our sinking economy?
I'm 
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Surely more expensive expense's will bridge the gap for our poverty stricken MLA's?
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Mark,
Thank goodness for the Assembly website. We can see exactly what our MLA's earn and what their expenses are. £44000 is enough for the MLA's. £71,000 for Executive Minister's is far too much. This year they didn’t meet for 150 days so therefore that money should be put to the disadvantaged. It is also laughable that Ritchie is looking at fuel poverty now when oil is less than $50 a barrel. The right time to act would have been September but then I guess she doesn’t know what she is doing.
Stormontspy
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Please do not forget subsidised food in the canteens . I am not so sure that they will refuse the pay raise look at all the good they have done Sure do they not deserve it
please do not have a go as this is only sarcasm
the total cost off running the the hiltop hotel is £147 million and ofm dfm £47 million ref prog for gov papers
think how many people that would employ or take out off fuel poverty
however live horse and you will get oats
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