Letter: Stormont ​MLAs are essential - they provide an important public service and should be paid accordingly

I feel we continuously and needlessly make a dog’s dinner of this particular issue. MLAs are public servants and should be paid as such.

Surely it should be possible to link an MLA’s salary to a senior civil servant pay grade in a similar pay bracket and for their pay simply to go up gradually in line with civil service pay. This would allow pay increases to be gradual rather than dramatic and should avoid the political embarrassment and expense of independent reviews.

Somebody could surely devise a formula for committee chairs, ministers, etc to get whatever percentage higher than a normal MLA and just have the whole thing as an automatic function of general civil service pay increases.

Criticism of politicians is valid but it should always be based on policy debate, not rubbishing the individuals. Government is difficult and government in Northern Ireland is particularly difficult.

I believe most people who enter politics throughout the UK and across the political spectrum do so out of a genuine desire for public service. In the social media age politicians take a tremendous amount of abuse and scrutiny, much of which is lightweight and little more than general abuse. They sacrifice a high degree of privacy and daily living. We are lucky to live in a country where politicians for the most part function for the public good.

I am unhappy that I voted for unionists not to enter the NI Executive until the Irish Sea border was resolved and that this promise was broken. It isn’t the individuals I want to destroy. I want the policy to change to what I voted for.

Politicians are essential to our democracy and provide an important public service. We should treat the profession as respected public servants and pay them accordingly. We should respect the profession even if we don’t agree with the policies.

R G McDowell, Belfast BT5