TUV leader Jim Allister has launched a bid to curtail Stormont's excessive spending on special advisers.
The North Antrim MLA, who in 2013 successfully piloted a private members bill which stopped people with serious convictions from working as Stormont spads, now wants to cut their salaries and ensure the political appointees are subject to civil service disciplinary rules.
Mr Allister was prompted to push for the legislation in response to ongoing concerns about the amount the executive parties spend on spads, alongside recent outcry that Stephen Brimstone escaped disciplinary action over his role in the Red Sky affair.
Mr Brimstone phoned Lisburn DUP councillor Jenny Palmer and urged her to vote against a plan to end Red Sky's Housing Executive maintenance contract. Despite a Stormont scrutiny committee concluding that he acted inappropriately by calling Mrs Palmer, the decision not to discipline Mr Brimstone rested with the minister he was employed by.
Mr Allister is also concerned that Stormont has significantly more spads than the other devolved institutions, with the Office of First and Deputy First Minister employing as many as the entire Welsh government.
The salaries of the north's spads are also greater, with some paid £100,000 each, according to the TUV leader, compared with almost half that in Wales.
Mr Allister wants to cut spads' wages by more than a third, putting them in the same bracket as grade 5 civil servants.
"The cost and number of special advisers at Stormont has got out of hand," Mr Allister said.
"In this time of austerity they are a disproportionate drain on public resources."
