MLAs made a 'moral decision' when they plugged their cars into Stormont's free chargers - Gaston
Politicians need to reflect on the “moral decision” they made when they chose to plug their cars into Stormont's free electricity, Timothy Gaston has said.
The TUV man’s comments came as the Assembly Commission announced its intention to change its current scheme which allows MLAs, their staff and certain employees to top up electric vehicles (EVs) for free.
However, the body has said the arrangements were typical of “many public sector bodies and incentive schemes to promote the uptake” of EVs.
It was revealed this week that a number of MLAs had availed of the scheme. None spoke publicly until they were named on the BBC Nolan Show. Speaking to the programme, Mr Gaston said the story had outlined “the importance of good investigative journalism”.
“It really seems that the rules suited the political parties until the public found out, and over the last number of days they have faced significant criticism, and rightly so”, the North Antrim MLA said.
He added: “Every time that somebody plugged in their car, there was a moral decision that they made that they were availing of free electric. And that's something that those that have been involved need to reflect upon”.
The TUV MLA said the public backlash had shown that some politicians “are completely out of kilter with the general public in this issue”, adding that he hadn’t “seen criticism like this of MLAs in a long, long time”.
On Thursday evening, an Assembly spokesperson said that the Speaker, with the support of all Members of the Assembly Commission, “has tasked officials to bring forward proposals” to the next meeting, later this month.
“Those proposals will include options on the introduction of usage fees for the six EV charging points at Parliament Buildings and ensuring that all EV charging points within the responsibility of the Assembly Commission are managed on a consistent basis going forward”, they said.
The body argued that when the facilities were introduced at Parliament Buildings in 2015, “EV technology was still emerging and charging facilities were not widely available”.
They said the wider approach is changing as more EV charging points “have a cost for use”.