Member of the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) election debate team, Dr Dana Morris Dixon says past People’s National Party (PNP) administrations took a “wrecking ball” to the Jamaican economy.

Morris Dixon was rebutting claims made by the PNP’s Julian Robinson that the PNP inherited a poor economy after it won the December 2011 General Election.

“When they (the JLP) left office in 2011, the country was on the precipice of economic collapse,” Robinson claimed at Tuesday night’s election debate on the economy.

“When we (the PNP) got in 2012 we had to restore Jamaica’s credibility. We had to establish EPOC (the Economic Programme Oversight Committee), we strengthened and enhanced the fiscal rules, we legislated the debt-to-GDP ratio so that any government – PNP or JLP – had to pay down that debt,” the Opposition spokesman on finance suggested.

He also claimed that the PNP was the political party responsible for the fiscal responsibility that exists today.

“And we will continue that when we get into office again!” he declared.

Morris Dixon, in her rather calm but energetic demeanor, said she was “glad” that Robinson listed all those improvements in the country’s economy.

“When the PNP was in government, they took a wrecking ball to our economy and that’s a fact! When we (the JLP) took office nine years ago, we saw high unemployment, we saw high debt, we saw high crime rate, too, and we saw failing infrastructure, and this [JLP] administration got to work – working on all of those areas,” she said.

The minister accused the PNP of not “knowing fiscally responsibility”, claiming that it has been evidenced in Jamaica’s history time.