MLAs unite in bid to roll back key reform introduced after the expenses scandal

Today, Assembly members will attempt to reverse that change but insist that the public should not see that as a reversion to a system which is more generous or easier to abuse.

In 2011, after politician after politician in both Westminster and Stormont had for years been exposed to be mired in financial scandal – often related to abuse, either in spirit or in letter, of the rules on expenses – Assembly members agreed to give up the right to set their own pay and allowances.

In taking evidence on the issue at the time, the Assembly was told bluntly by Westminster’s Committee on Standards in Public Life: “As part of the changes required to restore public trust, it is no longer tenable for politicians to set their own pay and allowances.”

Instead, MLAs set up the Independent Financial Review Panel (IFRP) and gave it the power to make binding decisions on all payments to MLAs or their staff.

Few people ever accused the panel – made up of Pat McCartan, Henrietta Campbell and Alan McQuillan – of being too soft on politicians, even though it increased their salaries at the same time as cutting their expenses.

But many MLAs came to believe that the new regime was overly tough on them, with a more bureaucratic approach to payments which previously had gone through seamlessly or decisions which they believed to be irrational or unnecessarily cumbersome.

In 2016, the three panel members’ tenures expired and they have never been replaced.

Last week the BBC revealed that the main parties have united in unusual agreement and are jointly proposing that a key element of the review panel’s remit should be removed – and returned to MLAs.

This morning MLAs will debate a motion – proposed by Alliance’s John Blair, the DUP’s Keith Buchanan, the UUP’s Robbie Butler, the SDLP’s Dolores Kelly and Sinn Fein’s John O’Dowd – which would give the Assembly Commission, a cross-party group of MLAs, the power to “determine the allowances payable to Members of the Assembly”.

In fact, the motion proposes allowing MLAs to backdate such decisions retrospectively – seemingly giving MLAs the power to now alter the rules under which MLAs could otherwise have been forced to repay money which had been claimed outside the rules of the time.

TUV leader Jim Allister has said that he will attempt to amend the motion to only allow MLAs to determine their own expenses in exceptional circumstances if the rules are causing “practical difficulties or inequities”.

Mr McQuillan told the BBC that he feared that the change could mean unscrupulous politicians getting their hands back on what he called the expenses “honey pot”.

But in a letter to MLAs last week Speaker Alex Maskey insisted that “rigorous processes will continue to be in place”.

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