LET’S BE REAL ON NATIONAL INSURANCE

Paul Adderley, the late former Government Minister, used to say: “ It is better to do something than to do nothing.” We agree as it relates to the National Insurance Fund.  The experts have warned us from as long ago as the first Christie government that the fund was being depleted faster than it was being replenished. This along with the fact that monies were being siphoned off on the drug programme without a funding mechanism and the aging populations with not enough new births, has the fund in crisis which could hit, if not addressed, as early as 2028. Yet with all that stark evidence before it, you have these nit wits arguing that nothing should be done. Shamefully one of them is the union leader Kemsley Ferguson who opposes increasing the contribution rate and opposes  increasing the retirement age. In other words we must do nothing, then when it goes broke, he will complain that we did nothing.  Duane Sands, the FNM Chair got into it and here is the PLP’s response from Chairman Fred Mitchell