Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
RUANE DEPARTS
» Ex MLA quit Assembly role » £55k salary gift to charity
CAITRIONA Ruane quit as principal deputy speaker of Stormont yesterday – after it emerged she was still being paid £55,000 a year.
The former Sinn Fein MLA stood down from the Executive before the elections in March.
But TUV leader Jim Allister revealed Ms Ruane remained in the role even though the Assembly hasn’t sat since January.
Ms Ruane, a one-time Education Minister, said last night she had put on record last March she “would be donating the salary to a wide range of charities”.
The Assembly Commission defended her position before she stepped down, saying the speaker and deputy speakers will “remain in office and receive their salaries until a new speaker and deputy speakers are elected”.
A Sinn Fein spokesman said: “Caitriona Ruane was no longer an MLA after March this year. Any arrangements she may have come to with the Assembly were her own affair.”
Ms Ruane’s statement saying she was resigning also claimed her salary went to help an Irish language focused charity, “a group for the elderly, an LGBT group and a charity for children with disabilities”. She added: “I never anticipated that the election for the new speaker and deputy speaker would be so protracted.” Mr Allister responded to her resignation by tweet, saying: “Glad to have ‘ruaned’ Caitriona’s money tree.”
The North Antrim MLA also suggested Sinn Fein “put their own house in order” instead of calling on DUP speaker Robin Newton to resign over his dealings with the Uda-linked Charter NI.
But he said before the news of the resignation broke that “both Mr Newton and Ms Ruane have the facility to resign, but neither have chosen to do so even though, in the case of Ms Ruane, she isn’t even an MLA any longer”.
He added: “As with so much, it could only happen in Stormont.”