Plans to raise Northern Ireland Assembly members salaries by £5,000 were today branded a scandal by one Stormont MLA.
UK Unionist Party leader Mr Robert McCartney has attacked recommendations to take their wage packets to £45,000 sterling a year.
The North Down MLA claimed the Assembly had only sat on 128 days in the last two-and-a-half years, producing little meaningful legislation in that time.
He said: "The people of Northern Ireland are growing heartily sick of seeing these people rolling about voting themselves these rises. It's a scandal, because as I have said from day one, devolution is just a means of jobs for the boys".
A report from the Senior Salaries Review Board (SSRB) has recommended a 2.5 per cent pay rise to about £45,000 per year. It also recommended a £12,000 increase in office allowances, to £48,000 per year, to allow MLAs to employ an extra member of staff.
There will be no change in the salaries of ministers, junior ministers or the Assembly Speaker Lord Alderdice. Pension and travel expenses will remain the same.
Sinn Féin's West Belfast MLA, Mr Alex Maskey, also opposed the pay rises. He said his party had consistently opposed pay rises for Assembly members in its submissions to the SSRB.
PA