Deyalsingh: UNC boycott of House sitting 'dereliction of duty'

HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh declared the Opposition UNC was guilty of a " total dereliction of duty" by boycotting Friday's sitting of the House of Representatives.

Deyalsingh's first condemnation of the UNC came after Deputy Speaker Esmond Forde said four urgent questions posed by the Opposition to the Government would lapse because of their absence.

Government MPs thumped their desks as Deyalsingh asked, "Where is the Opposition to do the people's business?"

He declared, "This is a total dereliction of duty, a disgrace to the country and violates the oath of office of every single Opposition member. This is disgraceful and ought to be condemned in the strongest manner.

Deyalsingh said the Government had come to Parliament ready to do the people's business.

He condemned the UNC's absence again later in the sitting as he moved a motion to approve the Quarantine (Maritime) (Amendment) Regulations 2021.

"In these days of massive cruise ships, containerised cargo ships three football fields long, now with airlines that can fly cross-Atlantic and do 19-hour flights non-stop, moving from Australia to New York, these regulations take on a more serious tenor and tone." Deyalsingh explained that as a result the amended regulations were necessary to prevent the entry of diseases into Trinidad and Tobago and ensure the continued smooth flow of trade.

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi said, "Right now, our brothers and sisters in the island of St Vincent are on evacuation because of the eruption of a volcano. Some 30,000 people are now in jeopardy.

"Many of the people who are to be evacuated out of St Vincent and the Grenadines now find themselves ship-bound." Al-Rawi said it is important "to ensure that we don't have a conflict of laws in the Caricom setting, so that when you board a ship in St Vincent and you look to make your way to Trinidad in an emergency situation, that you find an ease of passage because there is a familiarity and one methodology of treating with matters is why laws like this become important."

After observing that one of the things the regulations dealt with was rats on ships, Al-Rawi quipped, "Today we don't have that phenomenon. Certainly in the Parliament today, there are no rats that we look at in this modern plague and concept and position, this building having been renovated."

He also recalled his predecessor Anand Ramlogan, SC, Chaguanas West MP Dinesh Rambally and other lawyers have failed to challenge in court the quarantine protocols put in place to prevent the spread of covid19 in TT.