Gildernew tops SF Westminster expenses

Published 9 Apr 2009 12:00 0 Comments

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Figures released showed that Fermanagh/south Tyrone MP Michelle Gildernew had the highest expenses than all her republican MP counterparts at £138,272. She is eleventh on the list out of the 16 dual mandate politicians claiming most expenses.

The sum is a couple of hundred pounds higher than party president and West Belfast MP Gerry Adam"s expenses of £137,943.

The politician is one of five elected Sinn Fein MPs out of 16 elected representatives for Northern Ireland and despite all of them refusing to take their seats in Parliament, they collectively accrued around £650,000 in parliamentary costs.

West Tyrone MP Pat Doherty, who spent £136,423 and his party colleague, Mid Ulster MP Martin McGuinness, totalling costs of £136,236 on staffing, travel and office expenses. Newry and Armagh MP Conor Murphy"s travel staffing and office costs totalled £132,361.

However, since Sinn Fein don"t actually sit in parliament, they receive no parliamentary wage.

Enniskillen-educated DUP MP Nigel Dodds" expenses were the highest of all Northern Ireland members totalling £171,609 and is the 13th highest of all MPs in Westminster.

This week it emerged that his Unionist colleagues Peter and Iris Robinson are collectively making £571,000 a year in salaries and expenses.

It"s believed a salary of £63,291 is paid to MPs annually and they receive allowances for the costs of running an office, having homes both near Westminster and in their constituency and travelling between both.

A review by Westminster"s Committee on Standards in Public Life into MPs" allowances is expected to begin as soon as possible.

Responding to the expenses revelation Michelle Gildernew MP said: 'I actively use our offices in Westminster to campaign on many important constituency issues and to engage directly with ministers, it also a crucial part of our peace process work, in particular engaging with the opposition parties to further our work on Irish unity. I have two constituency based offices, from which I provide a top quality constituency service to represent people not only from across both communities but also ethnic minorities, migrant workers and their families.'

Ms Gildernew said that because she had not see the exact details of the report yet, she could not comment on why her expenses where higher than her party colleagues but did state, 'We don"t take a wage from parliament and the wages we do take from the assembly is used by the party as well and not one of us make any financial gain from this and for anyone to suggest we do is absolute fallacy. We are very much in touch with our electorate and intend to continue in offering them the best service and representation in a different country to our own.'

A critical Ulster Unionist MLA Tom Elliott, said he is 'not surprised' by Sinn Fein"s expense claims and deemed their expenses 'hypocritical' given the fact they do not take their seats at Westminster.

'In total, Sinn Fein MPs Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Michelle Gildernew and Pat Doherty claimed £548,874-how is this acceptable if they refuse to take their seats? At a time when the public purse strings are pulled extremely tightly Sinn Fein has managed to retain this cash cow at the expense of the very people they are supposed to represent. It is time for Sinn Fein to stop being so hypocritical-they sit under the Crown in the Assembly, a devolved institution within the United Kingdom. In that Assembly they pass legislation which is ratified by the Queen-some may ask what the difference is. Sinn Fein needs to either come to terms with the fact that they are part of these institutions or their expenses claims need to be removed.'

Ms Gildernew responded to this by stating, 'It"s extremely rich of the UUP to come out with this remark considering they did not offer their constituents any effective government representation in the 18 years they held a seat.'

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 09 Apr 09

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