±«Óãtv

Carmel Hanna, MLA, the chair of the Assembly's Committee on Standards and Privileges has called for the introduction of new Assembly rules so that all publicly funded posts will be publicly advertised with appointments made transparently on the basis of merit. This is in response to the Derek Conway affair in the House of Commons, and the revelation (which wasn't much of a revelation, because the dogs in the street are aware of it already) that that many MLAs employ members of their families on their payroll. No MLA is currently breaking any law or rule by employing a family member, and the practice is commonplace in all the legislative bodies in these islands. But is it right? Carmel Hanna made her comments ahead of the next meeting of the Assembly Committee on Standards and Privileges (on Wednesday) in conversation with Sir Alastair Graham, until recently the Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life. Sir Alistair agreed with her proposal as an appropriate response to the public's concerns. He argued that the introduction of new rules of this kind by the Assembly is perferable to new Westminster legislation extending employment and equality law to legislators. Listen again to the discussion on ther Sunday Sequence website.