Irwin Armstrong, chairman of the Northern Ireland Conservatives, has called the new procedure for vetting special advisers “a fudge” and insisted that the “whole area of SPADs at Stormont needs to be reviewed urgently”.
“By suggesting that the review will prevent those convicted of terrorist offences from taking up special adviser posts, the DUP has misled voters”, Irwin commented. “It’s clear that the new rules will not automatically bar someone convicted of being a terrorist murderer from becoming a minister’s SPAD, nor will they remove them from their current position. In fact the review sets out a range of criteria which Sinn Féin can use to put whoever it wants in position.”
“There may be more low level hoops to leap through, but essentially nothing has changed. Neither will the review change the culture of secrecy at Stormont which means that the public cannot find out what special advisers earn, despite the fact that tax payers’ money pays their salaries. This is in contrast to Westminster where all is on the public record. And there will still be 8 SPADs at the OFMDFM alone, whereas the First Minister in Scotland has one part time adviser.”
“It’s an absolute scandal and the whole area of special advisers at Stormont needs to be reviewed urgently. There are far too many of them, they are far too expensive, there’s zero transparency where their salaries are concerned and there’s not a shred of public confidence that suitable people will be appointed as SPADs.”