DUP and Sinn Fein vote down Jim Allister’s SPAD bill

| Readers 1403

Jim Allister is back with a SPAD bill (not that one) this piece of legislation would have placed a cap on pay and the number of SPADs that can be employed. Northern Ireland currently spends over £2 million per year on SPADs which is double the cost of Scotland and three times that of Wales.

A few months ago Jim Allister wrote for Slugger setting out his case for reform of the system.

Alas it appears that business as usual returned to the chamber today to defeat the bill. The DUP and Sinn Fein voted down Jim Allister’s bill 52-33. The SDLP, Alliance and UUP backed the bill.

The entire farce of this situation was captured by the SDLP today who tweeted

Another day in Gotham City……

Discover more from Slugger O'Toole

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Recent posts

Andy Pollak

Challenging Traditions: Reimagining Northern Irish Identity…

Mick Fealty

Why Michelle O’Neill’s answers in the McMonagle case just don’t add up…

Frank Schnittger

Bidenomics made real

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated. 

Give a monthly donation Give a one-off donation