KINGSTON Jamaica  – Both current Minister of Health, Dr Christopher Tufton, and one of his predecessors, Dr Fenton Ferguson, are scheduled to speak in the Sectoral Debate which continues this afternoon in the House of Representatives.

Dr Tufton, who will be making his first presentation in the health portfolio, is a former minister of agriculture and fisheries, and later minister of industry, investment and commerce in the 2007/11 Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) administration.

Dr Ferguson was minister of health and later minister of labour and social security in the previous government, after his transfer which was triggered by the chikungunya epidemic. He has since been retained in the People’s National Party’s (PNP) shadow cabinet as its spokesman on labour and social security, and is expected to respond to issues raised by current minister, Shahine Robinson, in her presentation yesterday.

Other speakers scheduled for today are: Rudyard Spencer, minister of state in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, with responsibility for the public service, and Luther Buchanan, who is the Opposition’s spokesperson on housing and rural development.

Balford Henry