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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Brendan Hughes

Alliance MLA Patrick Brown takes up business consultant role during Stormont's absence

An Alliance MLA has taken up a part-time consultant role for an enterprise agency during Stormont's continued absence.

Patrick Brown is working for Down Business Centre, earning £1,188 per month to be paid to a property firm for which he is a director, Brown Estates.

The South Down MLA will work 54 hours per month in the consultant role under a fixed-term contract lasting four months, according to his Assembly register of interests.

Read more: DUP silent on speculation of discontent over handling of Protocol talks with PM adviser

Alliance said the 31-year-old's "temporary" job is "in addition to his full-time role as an MLA".

It emerges less than two months after MLA salaries were cut from £51,500 to about £37,000 due to the collapse of power-sharing.

For the past year the DUP has been blocking devolved government in protest against Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol.

An Alliance spokesman said: "Patrick Brown was approached as a board member by this charity in order to consult for them on a part-time, temporary basis, which he agreed to do in his personal time.

"This is in addition to his full-time role as an MLA, in which he continues to fully serve the people of South Down, and has been declared in line with the statutory guidance.

"Mr Brown, along with the majority of MLAs, want to be carrying out their full roles but unfortunately remain unable to do so due to the actions of the DUP.

"We are fully committed to reforming and restoring the Assembly and Executive, and have repeatedly set out a clear path to do so."

Earlier this week an Alliance MLA in North Antrim announced her resignation less than a year after being elected to the Assembly.

Patricia O'Lynn will leave her role at the end of March to take up a new position at Queen's University Belfast.

Announcing her departure, the 33-year-old former Ballymena councillor said the ongoing impasse at Stormont has been "frustrating".

Last year it emerged Mr Brown was a paid consultant for a political campaigning company that has left students hundreds of pounds out of pocket after going bust.

He earned £800 a month to advise Volunteer USA, a business trading under the name Politrip which organised trips for young people to take part in American election campaigns.

The company entered liquidation with trips cancelled and students left unsure whether they will ever get their money back.

Mr Brown, who was listed among the creditors awaiting payment, said last year it would be "inappropriate" to comment while insolvency proceedings were continuing.

The Alliance representative is the not the only MLA to take up work outside of Stormont, with several others performing a variety of roles.

DUP MLA Trevor Clarke is a partner in a car sales business earning up to £3,000 working eight hours per month. SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan is a director of a hospitality business, receiving up to £15,000 in the past financial year after working around 10 hours per week.

The financial interests of MPs have also been scrutinised in recent months.

Sinn Féin MP John Finucane was 20th in a list of MPs earning the most from jobs outside of Parliament, according to an analysis by Sky News and Tortoise.

The North Belfast MP receives £4,672 a month working between 40 and 80 hours for his law firm, according to his register of interests.

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