Sharp exchanges between the Government and Opposition over who is responsible for the poor and deteriorating state of the country’s roads marked Tuesday’s sitting of Parliament.

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness elicited rage from the Opposition benches after a lengthy statement in which he provided an update on various multi-billion dollar road projects across the island, and during which he repeatedly boasted that only his Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government could get it done.

According to Holness, his Government created the fiscal space to get the roads repaired after years of neglect by the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) when it was in office.

He also said that the roads have been affected by the impact of climate change.

Responding to Holness, Opposition Leader Mark Golding, who is also PNP president, said the prime minister’s statement was akin to a budget speech, with most of what was outlined included in his budget presentation last March and repeated many times since.

According to Golding, the speech was a “pretence at accepting responsibility [for the poor state of the roads] but in reality seeking to dodge responsibility”.

“To blame the appalling state of the road network in Jamaica today on climate change is totally disingenuous. The reality is that there has been an absence of any proper road maintenance policy for years and you have been in office for nine years, so you have superintended nine years of neglect over the maintenance of Jamaica’s road network for which the people are holding you accountable now,” Golding told Holness.

Golding said there used to be a Road Maintenance Fund under a previous PNP Government, but it was ended by the JLP. He said Jamaica has had decades of major road projects but very little by way of road maintenance.

“What bothers me about your approach is that it’s going to continue into the future if you are allowed to continue in Government. There will be inadequate maintenance as a permanent feature of your Government’s regime because you continue to be fixated on major road projects because of the collateral benefit that flows from those projects of which we are all aware,” Golding charged.

“But the road maintenance, which is what the people want to see — the interior roads, the community roads, even the scheme roads which you say the Government is not responsible for… You can’t shirk responsibility for scheme roads,” added Golding.

Despite being shouted down by Government members and interrupted on a point of order, Golding continued.

“This idea that climate change caused the bad roads in Jamaica: Mash down that lie! It has nothing to do with it, we have had heavy rains in Jamaica for years, climate change is a reality and it’s coming at us, but to blame the poor state of road network of the country on climate change is a farce and the people of Jamaica holding you accountable for it and you trying to pretend that it’s the PNP responsible for it when you’ve been in power for nine years,” Golding said.

“To say climate change is responsible for all the potholes in the country is absolute nonsense and the people don’t believe it and don’t accept it and you’re going to pay the consequences for it politically in the months to come,” Golding added.

Responding, Holness said the JLP got rid of the Road Maintenance Fund because it was costly to maintain. He also pointed out that the funds were raised from a special tax on fuel and were never enough in the first place.

“In other words, even with the existence of a Road Maintenance Fund, Jamaica’s roads in 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2011 were in no better condition than they are today,” said Holness.

“The same protests that existed about bad roads… then … existed now. The truth is that the Road Maintenance Fund had no impact. What makes the impact is not more taxes that you dedicate to a particular cause, what makes an impact is more revenues from which you can properly allocate,” Holness added.

He taunted the Opposition, saying that when they were in Government “all they know to do is to tax, tax, tax, tax”.

In comparison, he said his Government “generates revenues so that we don’t have to tax”.

The prime minister insisted, “You cannot ignore that we had the highest level of rainfall in the last 30 years. That is not something to ignore, it is a reality.”

He also accused the Opposition of flip-flopping on climate change.

When asked pointedly by Opposition spokesman on works Mikael Phillips whose responsibility it was to maintain the roads and who was responsible for their current condition, Holness said, “The current state of the roads is the responsibility of the Government. As I have said in my presentation, we are responsible for the maintenance of the roads.”

He said the Government did not cause Hurricane Beryl, which showered the country with heavy rains last July and destroyed many roads while causing landslides and breakaways.

“The heavy rains that we’ve had almost every week since July into November [last year] is not the fault of the Government. We, however, are responsible, we have control over the public purse and we have made the necessary allocations to have the roads repaired,” the prime minister said.