WHEN in 2007 the then Secretary of State Peter Hain increased MLAs' office expenses accounts from £48,000 to £72,000, the economy was still booming.
With most eyes fixed on the attempt to get Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness to share power, few w
ere concerned about the finance which sweetened that historic deal.
But less than three years later, as dole queues lengthen and hospital beds are closed, Assembly members' expenses accounts appear increasingly generous, especially given what they have been claiming for.
Putting in claims for staff to help constituents with problems, bills for phone calls at advice centres or stamps to post letters are easily understood by the public as legitimate and necessary.
But when MLAs are able to find the money for walnut desks, digital cameras and 'trophies' from their office expense accounts it is difficult for them to argue that they need an allowance of £72,000.
Perhaps the most difficult publicly-funded offices to justify are those of Strangford DUP MLAs Simon Hamilton and Michelle McIlveen, whose advice centres literally face each other in Comber.
MLAs who are also MPs have access to two expenses accounts for staff and offices, with the even more lucrative Westminster expenses system allowing them to keep a network of publicly-funded offices in their constituency.
Privately, many MLAs will argue that the expenses system is generous because their salaries of £43,000 are lower than those of other UK assemblies.
But with a population of 1.7 million, Northern Ireland is massively over-governed compared to the rest of the UK, with a network of hundreds of councillors, MLAs, MPs and Lords presumably leaving each MLA with less work to do than their counterparts in other regions.
Perhaps a smaller Assembly - as advocated by many unionists - with better paid MLAs, would allow the expenses system to be radically overhauled.
If not, as politicians are forced to implement drastic cuts to reduce the national deficit, they will find it increasingly difficult to justify leaving their own allowances untouched.
