Senator: Health Ministry must go

Declaring that “all governments (PNM, UNC, NAR)” have failed to improve the standard and quality of health care, Merhair questioned the relevance of a health ministry. “Privatise the whole system but Government will have to foot the bill,” the senator declared, causing Narace to raise his eyebrows and Opposition Senator Wade Mark to laugh. Merhair also called for the blood bank to be opened on weekends due to the urgent need for blood at hospitals due to the high levels of crime and vehicular accidents.

Stating that crime was a top priority in her budget, Merhair suggested that Government and the private sector form a partnership to create special insurance for police officers. In addition to the immediate implementation of the long-awaited breathalyser legislation, Merhair said the legal age for anyone to obtain a driver’s licence should be increased to 19 and persons under the age of 21 should be banned from driving from 6 am to 6 pm. Merhair added, the plethora of late night parties in recent times was a contributing factor to the increase in road deaths.

On food prices, Merhair called on Government to abandon its plans to establish large agricultural farms and form eight distribution centres across the country to sell cheap food in bulk to the population. She also called for economic diversification to be accelerated because the economy remained too vulnerable to price shocks in the global oil and gas markets. The senator added that the only way for the country to overcome the challenges it now faces was for all citizens to put country first through “a cultural shift or a revolution in thought.”