Stormont gravy train : “Amazing” increases in MLA staff & office costs

[Angelo]

What would people here suggest is a fair salary for a politician?

Actual figures, like

You can set out figures for each of the following: TDs, ministers, Taoiseach, MLAs and ministers in the north

Just wondering because it seems to me a lot of people moan about what politicians are paid, yet they never suggest a figure for what they should be paid

I'd suggest the average industrial wage 

(barring book deals and the likes)

That doesn't seem very sensible to me

Why?

Politicians should be in their role as community activists, not as people on a career gravy train.

If you look down south, where the salaries are much higher, the narrative that you need a good salary to attract the best candidates doesn't seem to stack up when you have a load of yokels romping home as poll toppers.

Career politics and the gravy train element needs to be eradicated but would a turkey vote for Christmas?

For the simple reason that politics is a very time consuming, highly demanding, extremely stressful job with immense responsibility and poor job security

If you pay peanuts you get monkeys and all that

If you want to run a country into the ground, by all means advocate for paying politicians the average industrial wage, but don't complain when society goes to shit

And if you pay in bars of gold you still get monkeys.

It should be a vocation, it should be for people who want to go in and make a difference to society - not for people who want to milk the state, screw the tax payer, massage their ego, use government jets and nip off to any junket going. And when you make the compensation for being a high level politician very lucrative then you have people who will act in their own interests rather than that of the people who elect them.

Take a worker, what's his motivation for taking on/going for a well remunerated job - what he can get out of it himself or what he can do for his company?

You fundamentally misunderstand both human nature and basic economics

By your logic, we could just as easily pay politicians nothing at all

But that wouldn't be very sensible

What you want would lead to a complete takeover of politics by the corporate and moneyed classes, because they would then be the only people who could afford to go into politics

If you want any sort of a healthy democracy, you have to pay politicians well

I believe if a person is getting into politics for their own gain and interests then their ability or will to have a positive impact on society is deeply flawed as their interests are much more likely to have ulterior motives.

You're a big fan of John Hume, do you think the remuneration of the job attracted John Hume to politics or do you think it was the ability to make a positive impact on society that motivated him?

You won't attract people who want to make a positive impact on society into politics if you pay them nothing, or pay them peanuts

What you are proposing is to erect a massive barrier to people who want to make a real and positive impact getting into politics

You're automatically ruling out anybody not from a wealthy background

Thus you get a politics which is entirely dominated by the corporate, moneyed classes - and a politics entirely dominated by the corporate, moneyed classes is also called a kleptocracy or a plutocracy

This is already a problem as it is - to varying degrees across different countries - but would become exponentially larger under what you propose

This is fairly basic stuff

If you want a Russian-style kleptocratic politics, as it appears is the case, well, that's your opinion and your right to hold that opinion, but I doubt many would agree with you

Was John Hume not paid peanuts when he entered politics?

When you look at the class of politician don't south, paying them a kings ransom also seems to attract monkeys, monkeys who are only interested in lining their own pockets too.

What I am proposing is the end of career politicians and the returns of community activists and open it up for those who see it as a vocation to change society for the better and not an avenue where they can use government jets, stay in top hotels, get wined and dined in the finest restaurants and further line their own pockets. We currently have a system of politics where politicans are extremely well remunerated and seem to be completely and utterly incompetent in fixing or addressing the failings in society.

So I fail to see any semblance of credibility when you are reinforcing a system that is already a proven failure.

This is just sloganeering with no handle on reality

Yet you're the one defending monkeys getting paid a fortune?

[Mikhail Prokhorov]

the sick counties are an absolute disaster of a place, it will take hundreds of years to correct, questionable even if then 

[BennyCake]

Pay rises - it's the only thing they've ever agreed on.

Jobs for the lads.

It's hardly shocking like.

[Evil Genius]

If you think these pay scale and expenses increases are outrageous, then remember this when the next election comes round:

"The changes were supported by DUP, Sinn Féin and the SDLP."

It's in your own hands, guys.

[Milltown Row2]

If you think these pay scale and expenses increases are outrageous, then remember this when the next election comes round:

"The changes were supported by DUP, Sinn Féin and the SDLP."

It's in your own hands, guys.

But that's simple, be the party that votes against it, knowing fine well there'll be plenty voting for it..

Easy to do the numbers on that one, and come out looking just!

[LeoMc]

If you think these pay scale and expenses increases are outrageous, then remember this when the next election comes round:

"The changes were supported by DUP, Sinn Féin and the SDLP."

It's in your own hands, guys.

But that's simple, be the party that votes against it, knowing fine well there'll be plenty voting for it..

Easy to do the numbers on that one, and come out looking just!

If 1 or 2 of those 3 had votes against it, it would not have been a token gesture.

[Milltown Row2]

They talk to each other.... they may argue over stuff but I'd say when giving themselves a few bob they'll be best buddies!