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Taxpayer subsidy for Stormont Assembly's catering facilities costing £1,000 a day

Catering facilities at Stormont have cost the taxpayer almost £1,000 a day during the last five years.
Catering facilities at Stormont have cost the taxpayer almost £1,000 a day during the last five years. Catering facilities at Stormont have cost the taxpayer almost £1,000 a day during the last five years.

THE cost of taxpayer subsidies for catering facilities at the Stormont Assembly has increased by almost a quarter in two years, despite earlier promises to review contracts.

Stormont's various bars, canteens and dining rooms cost the public purse almost £1,000 for every day of the last Assembly which was elected in 2011.

The figures, covering the five year period, show that £1.6 million was spent in subsidies, an average of £320,000 each year.

The canteen and bars bill was slashed by £50,000 between 2012 and 2013, when it was £222,942, but then jumped once more to £280,000 last year.

This was despite an Assembly spokeswoman insisting in 2013 that the contracts were "continuously under review to provide the best value for money" and blaming the rise on a decrease in sales due to a refurbishment project.

Assembly members already receive a salary of at least £48,000 on top of expenses claims.

Taxpayers also forked out £52,000 for the catering subsidy in the first two months of this year.

The figures were released in response to a question from TUV leader and North Antrim MLA Jim Allister, who said he was "disappointed" at the cost.

Mr Allister said: "I understood that there was a promise that this was to be addressed. However, the historic level of squander has continued.

"There is an ebb and flow in the demand and there is an element of the work being anti-social hours.

"Contractors have been able to argue that they need to be compensated for service at high and low times, but in a competitive market it seems as if we are being stretched to the point of over-subsidising."

Mr Allister also expressed scepticism that the bill would decrease once a new Assembly is elected.

He said: "There seems to be a laissez-faire attitude to all this. It will be up to the Assembly Commission, comprised of the five main parties, and certainly from this evidence we haven't had much walking the walk from them."

The Assembly Commission has said that the level of subsidy fluctuates depending on sales figures and the number of events and functions being held.

In its response, the Commission said: "Due to the nature of Assembly business and the requirement that services are often provided during unsocial sitting hours and for events, where the costs of providing such services exceeds the monies taken in, the extra cost is assumed by the Assembly. This is often referred to as operating cost or 'subsidy'."

"It is not possible to breakdown the operating cost/subsidy for each individual area...due to the nature of the support services contract where labour is distributed across all the outlets. Indeed, staff are not assigned to one particular catering outlet for every shift worked."