£52,500
– That's what has been spent on flower arrangements in Parliament
Buildings during the three years the Assembly has been suspended.
£300,000 – that’s what has been paid
to private contractors, Mount Charles Catering, to clean the empty Assembly
building during this time.
£100 million – that’s what the suspended
Assembly will have cost by the time the November deadline for agreement
is reached.
If the DUP suggestion that the deadline be put back two weeks were taken
up, that would cost £1 million extra.
Yet we are asked to accept education cuts and pay water charges because
the "money is not there".
Here’s a more sensible way to save money that would hurt no-one
– since the politicians are at a loose end up in Parliament Buildings,
give them the job of watering and arranging the flowers and cleaning
the building. It would save money and have the added benefit of keeping
them quiet for a while!
