PM to host town hall meetings on NIDS
Published:Thursday | November 30, 2017 | 12:00 AM
Prime Minister Andrew Holness has given the assurance that the Government will be hosting public consultations in the form of town hall meetings to provide further clarification on the National Identification System (NIDS).
The first meeting is slated for Tuesday at Emancipation Park in St Andrew, beginning at 6 p.m.
Holness, who was speaking at an OPM-Live mini town hall meeting at Jamaica College in St Andrew on Wednesday, advised that while the supporting NIDS Bill has been passed by both Houses of Parliament, it has one more stage of deliberations before its implementation.
REGULATIONS DETAILS
"The regulations that will further define how the NIDS will actually work are still to come. I encourage all Jamaicans to ensure that you are satisfied with the details of the regulations and ask for the support of everyone who wants to see the best for Jamaica," he said.
Foreign affairs and foreign trade minister and leader of government business in the Upper House Senator Kamina Johnson Smith advised persons attending the meeting that the legislation provides for a pilot to be undertaken to determine how the initiative will be rolled out, and, thereafter, for the bill to be reviewed within an 18-month period.
She said that based on the project plan, full roll-out "is more likely to be in three or four years".
"So the anxiety and the concerns that are being raised legitimately, we hear them, we are taking them on board, and we want you to raise the issues so that we can address them," the minister told the audience.
Chief Technical Director in the Office of the Prime Minister Jacqueline Lyn Stewart has advised that the NIDS public education has started and will be ramped up in 2018.
She also noted that additional training is being provided for members of the project team to enable them to provide in-depth information about the NIDS to stakeholders who are engaged at the community level.
Lyn Stewart also encouraged persons to familiarise themselves with details of the NIDS at www.nidsfacts.com.