When MLAs finally returned to Stormont at the start of the year, there were plenty of eyebrows raised when it was confirmed that they were due a £1,000 pay rise, taking salaries to £50,500.
While that 1% pay rise was handed back, since then we have also had more criticism directed at members when they effectively voted through significant increases in pay for support staff, and in allowances for running constituency offices.
But at the same time, we can’t expect people to work for nothing, and either being a politician, or working in a support role, is hardly a secure job. It is also a job that often comes with unsociable hours, and some impossible expectations from constituents.
However, one thing we can expect is that our MLA’s do their job properly when it comes to scrutinising policy and holding government departments to account.
Unfortunately, the agriculture, environment and rural affairs (AERA) committee at Stormont has fallen well short in this area to date. That manifested itself last week in a surreal end to the committee meeting when the deputy chair mentioned that he had received phone calls from farmers unhappy with the changes made to the COVID-19 support payments to beef farmers. That led to confusion among members, and a suggestion that they should write to Minister Poots asking for clarification.
Yet it was this very committee the week previously that nodded through these changes to the beef payments in a short 25-minute meeting with virtually no substantive questions asked of DAERA civil servants.
Looking ahead, there are a number of major issues to come before this committee over the coming months, including a new TB eradication policy, potentially a grant scheme for low-emission spreading and an ammonia action plan. There is also a raft of Brexit-related legislation on the horizon. The AERA committee has a vital job to do in holding DAERA civil servants to account. It needs to do much better.
Read more
Farmers better served with Stormont in place
When civil servant advice goes horribly wrong
When MLAs finally returned to Stormont at the start of the year, there were plenty of eyebrows raised when it was confirmed that they were due a £1,000 pay rise, taking salaries to £50,500.
While that 1% pay rise was handed back, since then we have also had more criticism directed at members when they effectively voted through significant increases in pay for support staff, and in allowances for running constituency offices.
But at the same time, we can’t expect people to work for nothing, and either being a politician, or working in a support role, is hardly a secure job. It is also a job that often comes with unsociable hours, and some impossible expectations from constituents.
However, one thing we can expect is that our MLA’s do their job properly when it comes to scrutinising policy and holding government departments to account.
Unfortunately, the agriculture, environment and rural affairs (AERA) committee at Stormont has fallen well short in this area to date. That manifested itself last week in a surreal end to the committee meeting when the deputy chair mentioned that he had received phone calls from farmers unhappy with the changes made to the COVID-19 support payments to beef farmers. That led to confusion among members, and a suggestion that they should write to Minister Poots asking for clarification.
Yet it was this very committee the week previously that nodded through these changes to the beef payments in a short 25-minute meeting with virtually no substantive questions asked of DAERA civil servants.
Looking ahead, there are a number of major issues to come before this committee over the coming months, including a new TB eradication policy, potentially a grant scheme for low-emission spreading and an ammonia action plan. There is also a raft of Brexit-related legislation on the horizon. The AERA committee has a vital job to do in holding DAERA civil servants to account. It needs to do much better.
Read more
Farmers better served with Stormont in place
When civil servant advice goes horribly wrong
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