UPPER Bann MLAs cost the public pocket almost £700,000 in the last financial year.
This figure comes from the amount of expenses claimed by our six MLA and their annual salary.
Each MLA is paid £42,461.52 a year salary apart from John O'Dowd and Stephen Moutray who get an additional £10,143.07 office holder allowance.
David S
impson has his salary cut by two-thirds because he has an additional salary as an MP.
Each MLA is entitled to claim travel expenses and office running costs incurred during their work.
This has amounted to a total of £638,133 claimed by our MLAs and £12.6million claimed by all MLAs.
Stephen Moutray claimed the most expenses at £73,308 with a travel expenditure exceeding £5,000.
Although David Simpson claimed the least amount of expenses, he divides his time between the Assembly and Westminster Parliament..
Samuel Gardiner claimed the second smallest amount
David Simpson is chair of the Social Development Committee at the Assembly and is an MP as well as a councillor.
MPs work 34 weeks a year, receive a pension at the end of their service as well as 91 days paid holiday a year.
Mr Simpson is paid £61,820 a year salary, however, his MLA salary is cut by two-thirds and in 2006-07 he claimed £120,557 for his MP expenses.
Councillors also receive an allowance.
An independent review is expected to recommend a pay increase for MLAs of around 16 per cent, to bring them in line with other devolved assemblies.
The full article contains 264 words and appears in Lurgan Mail newspaper.
