Stories by Marlon Madden
A case is being made for more pay for senators.
Former president of the Senate Kerry-Ann Ifill made the suggestion, saying the current stipend is “less than adequate” for the work they have to do to make representation in the Upper House.
Senators are currently paid around $1 200 per month.
“It is not adequate. It is not adequate because when you bring in people, you also need to provide them with the tools and resources, and I believe our Senate is under-resourced,” Ifill said in response to a question at the fourth Parliamentary Reform Commission (PRC) town hall meeting at the Alexandra School on Thursday night.
“We need research support for senators, we need other training systems and mechanisms. Everybody does not have the same background that comes to the Senate and if we are bringing people from diverse backgrounds and expecting them to perform, we also need to give them those resources.”
Insisting that the compensation should be commensurate with the work being done, Ifill said senators had to do careful research.
“There is a lot of work that goes into preparing speeches . . . and, as I said before, when I was in the Senate you had people calling, suggesting and requesting. That takes up your time. It is not just speeches that we sit down and write, and unless the Standing Orders have changed, we are not supposed to read speeches. But we have to have research,” she told the audience at the meeting which was held on the topic, The Role of the Senate: Is it an outdated talk shop or a useful institution? How can it be made more inclusive of citizens’ voices and broader interests, thereby enlarging our democracy?
Ifill, who served as deputy president of the Senate from 2008 to 2012 before becoming the first female and first person with a disability to serve as president of the Upper House, from 2012 to 2018, added: “Who wants to sit down and listen to me stand up and go on and on about a disabled person when I can give them statistics, when I can discuss other things, when I can talk about women’s rights and issues and follow international [developments]?
“Sitting down subscribing to journals and all of those things are expensive undertakings, and if you want them to give you the best, you have to give them better compensation. I am smiling at the $1 500 [per month paid to the deputy speaker] because in my days it wasn’t even that. As deputy president, my remuneration was $1 400 a month.”
Ifill’s call for more money for members of the Senate comes at a time when some political pundits have raised concern about what they consider the high salaries of elected members in the House of Assembly.
However, PRC chairman Sir Richard Cheltenham defended the salaries of parliamentarians, saying their work went beyond meeting to discuss matters.
In fact, he said, “a part of the reason why there seems to be no sympathy out there for parliamentarians is that people don’t have full knowledge and understanding of what it is they do and how often they are involved in Parliament’s business”.
Sir Richard, who served as president of the Senate between 2018 and 2022, said many Barbadians believe that all parliamentarians do is meet once or twice a week and, therefore, do not deserve the pay they currently get.
However, he explained that most MPs met more often and if they were on more than one committee, they may have to give up to 15 to 20 hours of their time per week “doing Parliament’s business”.
He dismissed the view that the earnings of parliamentarians should be adjusted downwards.
“We need to somehow educate our public more than we have done in the past as to what exactly it is that we do and how often we are involved in the business of Parliament. I think that is important,” said Sir Richard.
