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09/01/2006
Hain warns MLA salaries may be stopped
Secretary of State, Peter Hain, has warned that MLA pay may be stopped if no progress is made towards restoring devolution by summer 2006.
He said: “We can’t have continued paralysis of the political situation. 2006 really is a key year for Northern Ireland because we can’t go on as we are with an Assembly that doesn’t exist."
Mr Hain added that he wasn't imposing a threat or a deadline, but was acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland public who wanted the politicians to start doing their jobs.
Each MLA has received an average of £85,000, a total cost of £78m since the suspension of assembly, he feels that it's about time they started taking responsibility for government or face the consequences.
He added that talks would commence in the light of the IMC report at the beginning of February, when himself and Dermot Ahern would meet with the parties.
He said: “We can certainly expect the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach to be meeting in the next few weeks to discuss the way forward and the Prime Minister himself will make a major speech on Northern Ireland soon as he is very focused on resolving this current situation.”
Sinn Fein Assembly Group leader John O'Dowd, agreed with the Secretary of State's comments, saying that the only party opposed to moving forward was the DUP.
Mr O'Dowd said: "Both governments have in recent times indicated that it is their wish to see the political institutions put back in place in the time ahead. Indeed the British Secretary of State, Peter Hain over the weekend repeated a view shared by ourselves that continuing with the Assembly in its current state is not sustainable.
"The only party who have set themselves against a restoration of the power sharing political institutions is the DUP. They seem content to allow British Direct Rule Ministers to carry on taking bad decisions, which are impacting negatively on people across our society while happily continuing to claim salaries for an Assembly which they are preventing from doing its job."
DUP MLA Peter Robinson felt differently about the continuation of a power-sharing executive and believes that if the assembly members are to face pay cuts, then so should Peter Hain and his ministers.
"Few could argue with the logic of closing the Assembly rather than moving into an Assembly election in May without an Assembly in operation after such a long period of suspension. Nor, indeed, should anyone be surprised that the government would want to look at the propriety of continuing to make payments to Assembly members when they are only performing part of their duties.
"None of this however removes government Ministers from partial culpability for the situation about which they complain. So perhaps the Secretary of State and his Ministers should have their salaries reduced as well."
Mr Robinson added that the DUP have always provided each Secretary of State with alternative options for devolution, but he said it had been the "blind obsession of trying to preserve and retain the unworkable Belfast Agreement that has caused deadlock."
He continued: "Unless the government and political parties realise that the destination of executive devolution is a journey, which cannot, in the circumstances which prevail, be made in one move. Sooner or later it will dawn on politicians that it is better to reach for the attainable than chasing after that what is, for the foreseeable future, unachievable."
(EF/SP)
He said: “We can’t have continued paralysis of the political situation. 2006 really is a key year for Northern Ireland because we can’t go on as we are with an Assembly that doesn’t exist."
Mr Hain added that he wasn't imposing a threat or a deadline, but was acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland public who wanted the politicians to start doing their jobs.
Each MLA has received an average of £85,000, a total cost of £78m since the suspension of assembly, he feels that it's about time they started taking responsibility for government or face the consequences.
He added that talks would commence in the light of the IMC report at the beginning of February, when himself and Dermot Ahern would meet with the parties.
He said: “We can certainly expect the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach to be meeting in the next few weeks to discuss the way forward and the Prime Minister himself will make a major speech on Northern Ireland soon as he is very focused on resolving this current situation.”
Sinn Fein Assembly Group leader John O'Dowd, agreed with the Secretary of State's comments, saying that the only party opposed to moving forward was the DUP.
Mr O'Dowd said: "Both governments have in recent times indicated that it is their wish to see the political institutions put back in place in the time ahead. Indeed the British Secretary of State, Peter Hain over the weekend repeated a view shared by ourselves that continuing with the Assembly in its current state is not sustainable.
"The only party who have set themselves against a restoration of the power sharing political institutions is the DUP. They seem content to allow British Direct Rule Ministers to carry on taking bad decisions, which are impacting negatively on people across our society while happily continuing to claim salaries for an Assembly which they are preventing from doing its job."
DUP MLA Peter Robinson felt differently about the continuation of a power-sharing executive and believes that if the assembly members are to face pay cuts, then so should Peter Hain and his ministers.
"Few could argue with the logic of closing the Assembly rather than moving into an Assembly election in May without an Assembly in operation after such a long period of suspension. Nor, indeed, should anyone be surprised that the government would want to look at the propriety of continuing to make payments to Assembly members when they are only performing part of their duties.
"None of this however removes government Ministers from partial culpability for the situation about which they complain. So perhaps the Secretary of State and his Ministers should have their salaries reduced as well."
Mr Robinson added that the DUP have always provided each Secretary of State with alternative options for devolution, but he said it had been the "blind obsession of trying to preserve and retain the unworkable Belfast Agreement that has caused deadlock."
He continued: "Unless the government and political parties realise that the destination of executive devolution is a journey, which cannot, in the circumstances which prevail, be made in one move. Sooner or later it will dawn on politicians that it is better to reach for the attainable than chasing after that what is, for the foreseeable future, unachievable."
(EF/SP)
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