Bring it on! - Robinson blasts Holness over national ID, COVID-19 claims

Opposition spokesman Julian Robinson on Tuesday blasted Prime Minister Andrew Holness over his continued insistence that a national identification system could solve the verification issues being experienced by the Government as it seeks to dole out money to the public.

During the sitting of the House of Representatives, Robinson asked for more money to be disbursed to members of parliament to distribute to their constituents, who are buckling under the economic pressure brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Robinson said that people he knew had difficulties accessing the Government’s COVID Allocation of Resources for Employees (CARE) programme, noting that persons have applied for the compassionate grant on behalf of their parents.

“So the TRN of the bank account which is provided would not be consistent with the TRN of the applicant because the person doesn’t have a bank account. So in a case like this the system would bounce that person. But this is a person in need,” said Robinson.

“Is it that the only household helpers who can benefit are those who are part of the union? If you are not a part of the union, how do you go about verifying that you are a household helper?” he asked in Parliament.

It was at that time Holness mentioned the usefulness of a national.

But Robinson who was an applicant in the recent NIDS case, ruled in his favour by the courts, fired back at the prime minister.

“You keep saying about the ID. If you want the ID then bring it on. It’s one year since the ruling. Bring the legislation, bring the regulations here. We had only one consultation on NIDS since then, but you keep talking about the ID.”

Robinson said the Opposition was ready to work on the legislation.

“But you keep saying NIDS and you haven’t brought anything to the Parliament,” Robinson pointed out further.

Holness informed that the NIDS policy is now with the chief parliamentary council.

“We are putting this on a fast track because we see how very important it is to use identification as a means of being able to give support, protection and to help with order in the society,” Holness said.

The Government has commenced verification activities to enable citizens who have applied for assistance under two components of the $10-billion CARE programme to start receiving grants by April 30.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke has lamented that the lack of basic identification and bank account information is significantly hampering many Jamaicans from accessing services and slowing down productivity at government agencies.

He says many persons are still attending government agencies for services which could have been done over the Internet.

“There are over 20 tax types that you can pay online. Yet, even though that facility exists, Tax Administration Jamaica just released numbers that say … that 80 per cent of the business that Jamaicans go to the tax office to conduct … could be done online,” Clarke said at a press conference at Jamaica House on Monday.