The toast's on us.

Following on from last night's post, a little bit more on the Northern Ireland Assembly's costs:

Overall, the 108 assembly members cost £13m per year – £5m in wages, £8m in expenses – for a province with a smaller population than that of Greater Manchester.

Regarding those expenses, an argument can be made for the UK taxpayer coughing up for double-sided tape, wipes for cleaning computers and perhaps, at a stretch, even binbags.

But for (deep breath):a map of county Fermanagh, weedkiller, a walnut desk, framing of constituency pictures, a toaster (!!), a sofa, a calendar, Sky TV subscriptions...the list goes on

Willie Hay, the assembly's Speaker, said the claims were published in order to make devolution more open.

Why now and why has it taken so long I wonder?