Dear Editor,

After reading a report in The Gleaner of Monday, August 17, 2015 of what I was supposed to have said at a PNP meeting in St Mary on Sunday night, I instinctively felt the need to provide readers with the verbatim account of what I actually said. “With all the long-term problems that the country has faced, and we have been dealing with, we have sought on every step of the way to ensure that the most vulnerable is protected to the best of our ability as a country.”

It seems my instincts serve me well, for in the Observer of Tuesday, August 18, 2015, Davion Redman, basing his comments on the report in The Gleaner, went on to construct what I can only imagine was intended to be a major critique of the statement attributed to me. I am content to let the facts speak for themselves.

The PNP Government in which I serve as minister of finance has made sure that the most vulnerable in the society are protected from economic and social fallout. Increases in the minimum wage in recent years, the decline in inflation, and the investments in the Programme for Advancement Through Heath and Education are some of the reasons I made that statement.

I do hope that I have brought clarity to this discussion.

Peter Phillips

Minister of Finance and Planning