Personal breath alcohol testers were distributed to Government and Opposition MPs in the House of Representatives yesterday morning, as Opposition MP Jack Warner kept a promise he had made two days earlier.
Warner had promised to give each MP and members of the media their own breathalysers during his contribution to the Lower House’s 2009/2010 Budget debate late Monday night. He said he would do this to speed up the long-awaited proclamation of breathalyser legislation passed two years ago.
The Express observed Opposition MP Subhas Panday reading the box which contained one of the testers while Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira was winding up the Lower House’s debate on the Budget.
Neither House Speaker Barendra Sinanan nor any Government MPs were observed inspecting any such device in the Parliament Chamber, however, and none was distributed to the media as of 2 p.m.
Warner had said he was giving the devices free of charge so that ’it may help them to expedite’ the proclamation of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic (Amendment) Act, which was passed by the Parliament in 2007.
The act authorises police officers to take breath samples of persons suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol, and also gives them the authority to order blood samples be taken of suspected drunk drivers but is yet to take effect.
The presence of the breathalysers in the Parliament Chamber was not the only distraction the MPs had to contend with yesterday morning.
The music from the military band that led the guard of honour along Abercromby Street to the nearby Hall of Justice for the opening of the law term was so loud, it could be heard in the Parliament Chamber while Nunez-Tesheira was winding up the Budget debate.
As such, House Speaker Sinanan adjourned the sitting at about 10.55 a.m. to 11.15 a.m., but later postponed the recommencement by a further 15 minutes until 11.30 a.m., as Chief Justice Ivor Archie led the procession of judges and magistrates along Abercromby Street to the Hall of Justice and inspected the guard of honour.
