Malis­sa Lara & Richard Lord

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley agreed late Fri­day to es­tab­lish a com­mit­tee to con­sult with stake­hold­ers and reach con­sen­sus on the new In­ter­cep­tion of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Bill, 2010. The PM said Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion MPs will meet with the pro­fes­sion­als (se­cu­ri­ty agen­cies) with a view to reach­ing agree­ment on a bill that can be ap­proved in Par­lia­ment this Fri­day. Per­sad-Bisses­sar made the an­nounce­ment dur­ing the con­tri­bu­tion of Op­po­si­tion MP Colm Im­bert on Fri­day night. Im­bert said he was pleased with the de­vel­op­ment.

The bill was pre­sent­ed for de­bate in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives on Fri­day af­ter­noon by Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Brigadier John Sandy. It re­quires a spe­cial ma­jor­i­ty vote to be passed. Al­though the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment has the re­quired ma­jor­i­ty on its own, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the leg­is­la­tion was too im­por­tant to be ap­proved with­out the sup­port of the 12-mem­ber Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment. The bill seeks to al­low the tap­ping of phones af­ter ap­proval is grant­ed by a High Court judge. The leg­is­la­tion was brought af­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­vealed, a week ago, the il­le­gal tap­ping of the phones of promi­nent cit­i­zens of the coun­try, in­clud­ing Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards, for­mer Chief Jus­tice Sat Shar­ma and for­mer act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er, James Philbert.

Yes­ter­day, Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, Dr Roodal Mooni­lal said, "the Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion ar­rived at an arrange­ment where­by a com­mit­tee of both sides will meet to dis­cuss amend­ments and rec­om­men­da­tions from the Op­po­si­tion to ar­rive at an ac­cept­able bill which the Op­po­si­tion is pre­pared to sup­port at the con­clu­sion of the de­bate on Fri­day." Mooni­lal said they were hop­ing for no more than three meet­ings in or­der to ar­rive at an agree­ment in or­der to pass the bill. The first meet­ing is sched­uled for to­mor­row af­ter­noon at the of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al.

The bi-par­ti­san com­mit­tee com­pris­es:

Chair­man-Roodal Mooni­lal

Prakash Ra­mad­har, Le­gal Af­fairs Min­is­ter

Her­bert Vol­ney, Jus­tice Min­is­ter

Jairam Seemu­n­gal, Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in the Le­gal Af­fairs min­istry

Collin Par­tap, Min­is­ter of State in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter

Dr Tim Gopeesingh, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter

Dr Kei­th Row­ley, Op­po­si­tion Leader

Mar­lene Mc Don­ald, Op­po­si­tion Chief Whip

Don­na Cox, MP for Laven­tille East/Mor­vant

Colm Im­bert, MP for Diego Mar­tin North East