Allister ups pressure on Ruane to pay back deputy speaker salary

PRESSURE is mounting on former Sinn Fein deputy speaker Caitriona Ruane to give back some of the tens of thousands of she has been paid by Stormont this year.

Ms Ruane resigned from the role in October following a furore over the £55,000 salary she was being paid for it, even though she did not run in the March election.

Now it has emerged she also received a tax-free £24,500 resettlement payment in June after resigning as an MLA in January.

TUV leader Jim Allister said: “Even by her standards she should not expect herself to be entitled to both. The silence of her party on this issue is also telling.

“I renew my call on the uncharacteristically quiet Ms Ruane to pay back either the salary or the tax-free golden handshake.” Ms Ruane said her salary had been donated to charities including those focused on the Irish language, an LGBT group and a charity for disabled children.

A Sinn Fein spokesman said any arrangements with the Assembly “were her own affair.”

RESIGNED Caitriona Ruane