After the restoration of Stormont power-sharing just eight weeks ago, Northern Ireland Assembly members are receiving an increase in salary. From Monday, in accordance with Assembly rules, the basic annual salary of MLAs will increase by £500, to £52,500. This pay rise will also apply to members of the Northern Ireland Executive.
The pay increase was implemented independently and based on inflation criteria. The assembly released a statement confirming the criteria was met and the pay rise would be applied. Rules for MLA pay were previously established by the Independent Financial Review Panel, however, their term ended in 2016, and MLAs have since taken issue with some of the panel’s rules.
Salaries are determined in a range of brackets, with First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly set to earn £124,500 per year, while ministers for other executive departments and the assembly Speaker Edwin Poots will earn £90,500. Chairs of statutory scrutiny committees and the public accounts committee are entitled to £64,500, and junior ministers, Deputy Assembly Speakers, and members of the Assembly Commission will earn £58,500.
MLAs in Northern Ireland earn less than their governmental counterparts in Wales and Scotland, who respectively receive £72,057 and £72,195 per year. Plans to re-establish the Independent Financial Review Panel have stalled and no reappointment has been made since 2016.
Although the pay increase is said to be applied based on inflation criteria, it has still caused some dissent among members of the public. Critics have pointed to the fact that MLAs usually only spend part of their working year in parliament – so they may not warrant the same salary as their counterparts in other regions
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