PARLIAMENTARIANS will, on Tuesday, begin to mull over with the recommendations of the Standing Orders Committee of Parliament for a overhaul of the format of the pending Sectoral Debate.

The matter was argued over at length by that committee last Tuesday after being raised by Central Kingston Member of Parliament Ronald ‘Ronnie’ Thwaites in the latest of several attempts by him to encourage more energetic and relevant debate. In fact, for the past three years, he has contended that the debate has lost its meaning.

“It doesn’t take place with any continuity… (and) has become a performance for the most part rather than a constructive addition to policy discussion. I urge members to think of the contributions they themselves and our colleagues have made to the Sectoral Debate over recent years, and to think, if you can remember anything that was said, or anything that has been considered, let alone implemented as part of policy,” Thwaites said on Tuesday.

The Sectoral Debate normally follows on the heels of the presentation of the annual Estimates of Expenditure and allows ministers of Government and members of Parliament, who did not contribute to the debate on the actual budget, to give their views on Government policies and programmes.

On Tuesday the committee proposed that the Sectoral Debate be completed by the end of the first quarter, or three months after Parliament reopens in April each year.

Other recommendations are that contributions to the debate would be the first order of the Public Business segment of the sitting, beginning half an hour after the scheduled 2:00 pm start of Parliament and concluding at 4:30 pm at which time the other business of the House would be dealt with.

There was, however, some contention over the proposal to limit the time given to each speaker. The recommendation is that government ministers be given 45 minutes to make their contribution, the Opposition Spokesperson, 30 minutes, and any other member, 20 minutes without extensions.

Still, committee members were at odds over this.

“Do you know how much time you take thanking God, and your permanent secretary, and the secretary in the constituency, your concubine in the gallery and your mother and your father? What nonsense is this, it has no place in the Parliament,” said Thwaites, who was in favour of the time restrictions, to the amusement of his colleagues.

His PNP counterpart, Leader of Opposition Business in the House Derrick Kellier, however, was not in agreement.

“It is a form of victimisation,” Kellier argued, saying that Government and Opposition members should speak for equal amounts of time.

“I think the time is the key (as) after 10 minutes nobody is listening,” House Speaker and Committee Chair Delroy Chuck added, pointing out that under the Standing Orders (which govern the sittings of the House) proposers are allowed to speak for 45 minutes and other persons for half an hour.

“The problem usually is (that) we give extra time,” he said.

In the meantime, the committee also attempted to draw the line on what exactly can be brought up during the Sectoral Debate. Thwaites wanted the government to agree to the debate being divided into three sector resolutions dealing with equitable economic growth, uplifting human and social conditions and strengthening infrastructure.

Kellier, however, voiced his unease with the Standing Orders Committee “attempting to set the parameters for a debate in terms of what the different sectors of that debate should be”.

“I don’t think it ought to be the business of the Standing Orders Committee to set those parameters in terms of the formatting proposed for the different headings. While I support and fully accept that there is need to review how it proceeds, I think we have to be careful, because at different times there will be different emphasis on what the budget is purporting to do, and I don’t think we could set that from this committee in any shape or form,” he said.

“The question we must ask is the purpose of the Sectoral Debate. It can’t be an omnibus for everything,” the Opposition’s Fitz Jackson noted.

The committee will meet this Tuesday at 1:00 pm to sign off on the final report which will be laid before Parliament at its scheduled 2:00 pm meeting later that day.