Allister calls for 'parity of transparency' on Special Advisers
01 September 2010
Following a decision by the new Coalition Government in Westminster to publish the public salaries paid to Ministers’ political advisers, TUV Leader Jim Allister, who has long pressed the DUP/Sinn Fein Coalition at Stormont on the issue, has renewed his call in a letter to the First Minister today.
Calling for ‘parity of transparency’ at Stormont in the secret world of Special Advisers, Mr Allister said, “It really is one of Stormont’s shady secrets that there is a class of political appointees and activists, playing the role of Special Advisers, who benefit from the status of being civil servants, and, yet, the taxpaying public is not permitted to know how much they are costing us.
“I’m glad the Prime Minister has addressed this issue in Westminster by publishing their salaries (see: www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/newsroom/statements/wms-special-advisers.aspx ). It is now time that Stormont followed suit and revealed just how much the Special Advisers at Stormont are costing us, including their expenses and the additional cost to the public purse of their NIC and civil service pensions.
“At the last count in Northern Ireland, with only 2.5% of the UK population, there were at the last count at least 19 SPADs, with 8 in OFMDFM alone, yet in all of Whitehall there are only 60. In these stringent times when front line services are under threat can we afford the annual seven figure sum involved? Is it value for money, or would it be better spent on nurses and teachers? Knowing the total cost is essential to any rational addressing of this waste.
“Having first asked for this information in May 2007, I trust now that Westminster has set a new standard of transparency, the Stormont regime will be embarrassed into doing likewise. Again, because every party at Stormont is in the government club, and thereby benefitting from such patronage, and no Official Opposition is permitted, this is one of the issues which is never aired in Stormont. Mutual interest has kept it covered, now mutual transparency with Westminster must see it exposed.
“I am also renewing my call that the public must be told how if any of these hand-picked Special Advisers have criminal convictions, including terrorist convictions. Given their untrammeled access to all government papers, the paying public is also entitled to know this essential information, so central to the issue of public confidence.”
