Assembly aides pay to continue

Government has agreed to keep eight advisors

The government has agreed to continue paying a number of ministerial aides who were expected to lose their jobs as a result of the suspension of the Northern Ireland Executive.

The former first and deputy first ministers are due to retain more staff than other ministers, but the government has said this is not a recognition that they have "shadow status".

Mark Durkan: Former deputy first minister

When the government suspended the assembly and the executive in October, the special advisers who worked for devolved ministers were given three months' notice.

Former Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid cut assembly members' salaries and talked about reviewing arrangements again at the end of the year - which many took as a warning of further restrictions on allowances.

However, the government has now agreed to keep eight special advisers on the pay roll - half of the number employed when the power-sharing executive was operating.

Pay scales

The Ulster Unionists and the SDLP will have three advisers each, while Sinn Fein and the DUP will keep one.

Government sources said former devolved ministers needed their advisers because they were still being consulted on policies they framed before suspension.

They said the move should not be seen as granting "shadow" ministerial status to either David Trimble or Mark Durkan or as a signal of official confidence that devolution would be restored in the spring.

Earlier this year, proposals to increase the salaries of assembly members from £40,000 to £45,000 were sharply criticised.

The recommended increase was contained in a leaked report from the Senior Salaries Review Body, an organisation which advises the government on pay scales.

The body has also recommended that members should be allowed to claim an extra £12,000 per year (£48,000 in total) to enable them to employ an extra member of staff.