MANDEVILLE, Manchester – Opposition Leader Mark Golding is calling on the Government to reduce its pace on debt payments and redirect some of the funds to alleviate the economic hardship being faced by Jamaicans.

“…This is a time when we need to just cool down the pace of this debt reduction and spend some money to cushion the crisis on the people,” he at the People’s National Party’s Knockpatrick Divisional Conference at May Day High School in Manchester on Sunday.

“We said to them, in the budget debate, ‘Take two per cent of GDP of expenditure in addition to what you came with in the budget and use that to cushion the crisis, that’s $40 billion’,” he added.

Golding said the social welfare of Jamaicans, including those on the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), needed more funding.

“We see it coming and the people need the help. The pensioners need the help. NIS pensioners need a top-up, poor relief, PATH beneficiaries and most of all the farmers, because they can’t afford this fertiliser at $15,000,” he said.

He added that farmers are facing tough times brought on by high expenditure.

“When they don’t buy the fertiliser, because they can’t afford it, the yields gwine fall, production gwine fall, at a time when the world can’t supply us with the food we need and the price is going to go up and the people are going to suffer and Jamaica is going to be in serious problems,” he said.

Golding also criticised Prime Minister Andrew Holness for not addressing the Jamaica Education Commission report compiled by Professor Orlando Patterson.

“I have to wonder about the prime minister, is like he is living in a world of his own. I don’t hear him saying anything about the crucial problems facing the country. I don’t hear him saying anything about the crisis in education, which the Patterson report has highlighted and made recommendations,” said Golding.

“We don’t hear anything about that. We don’t debate that in Parliament, but we know that for Jamaica to move forward we have to invest in our children. We have to invest in the early childhood education system. We have to invest in the primary school system,” he added.

“We cannot have a situation where close to half of the primary school students are not achieving the basics in maths, English and critical thinking. How are we going to achieve our 2030 goals if we don’t invest and set the system right fi de pickney dem in the early stages, so that by the time they reach secondary school they are well on their way to become productive citizens?” he asked.