Government has certainly won the battle against high food prices.

This was the claim made by Minister of Legal Affairs, Peter Taylor, at yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s.

Responding to suggestions that Government may have lost this battle, Taylor stated: ’I beg to differ. In fact Government has certainly won the battle against high food prices. Remember from the inception, when we came to office, the inflation rate was at an unprecedented level and food inflation was a major contributor.

’We have seen things come full circle, we have seen single digit inflation and we have seen for the first time, I think, that stakeholders actually heeded the call by the Government to reduce prices in short order.

’So from that point of view Government has won the fight, because we have been able to prevail on the key stakeholders to reduce their prices more in line in the savings that they themselves were benefitting from, on the international market. So I don’t think it is fair to say that Government has lost the fight and the consumer and the people are the biggest winners in this fight.’

Also at yesterday’s news conference, Culture Minister Marlene McDonald announced that Government planned to establish a ’Peoples’ Space’ at various venues around the country, but mainly at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain, to facilitate ’people’s participation’ in the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting due late next month.

The Peoples’ Space is expected to cost about $4 million, she said.

The People’s Space will hold symposia on various subjects such as Environment and Climate Change, Food Security and Sustainable Development as well as subjects such as Poetry, Rapso and Dialect. The Peoples Space would also see the establishment of eight pavilions on the written and spoken word, CHOGM highlights, liming spot, vintage, people’s food, panyard, masala and an administrative and media centre.

Meanwhile, Public Administration Minister Kennedy Swaratsingh said at the news conference that Cabinet did not discuss the issue of the Commission of Enquiry into UDeCOTT and the construction sector. Asked when the Integrity Commission was going to be appointed, ministers present pointed out that this was not part of their portfolio responsibility.

Told that it was perhaps better to have ministers whose portfolios responsibilities would enable them to address the main issues of the news, Swaratsingh directed the media to focus their questions on the portfolios of those ministers who were present at the news conference, rather than ask questions which they cannot answer.

In his typical short-spoken and polite manner, Swaratsingh said: ’It always amazes me that we choose to spend the time thinking about what you wanted to ask, rather than...Unfortunately you don’t get to make the decisions as to who comes to the post-cabinet press conference. But insofar as ministers are available to you, you can use the time to ask them questions or we can adjourn the press conference’.

Swaratsingh said Cabinet approved the timetable as presented by the Ministry of Public Administration, to begin the roll out of an Employee Assistance Programme for public officers. The roll out would start in January 2010. The programme provides support for employees in various areas of their personal lives.