Richard Lord

Talks be­tween the Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion over to­day's mo­tion in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives to ap­point a new com­mis­sion­er of po­lice are to con­tin­ue to­day.

Word of this from leader of gov­ern­ment busi­ness in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, Hous­ing and En­vi­ron­ment Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal. He spoke at a joint news brief­ing with chief whip Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald at the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter in St Clair yes­ter­day. Those at­tend­ing the meet­ing were Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Brigadier John Sandy, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan and Mooni­lal.

It was called for by Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley, who was ac­com­pa­nied by Mc­Don­ald, leader of op­po­si­tion busi­ness in the Sen­ate Pen­ne­lope Beck­les and op­po­si­tion MP Colm Im­bert. Sources said the 90-minute meet­ing was a fact-find­ing one where both sides out­lined their po­si­tion on the mat­ter. But Mooni­lal, speak­ing at a sched­uled news con­fer­ence at the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, said it was "fruit­ful (and) very use­ful." He said talks would re­sume be­fore the start of to­day's 1.30 pm sit­ting in the House. "For the out­come of that dis­cus­sion, you will have to tune in to the Par­lia­ment Chan­nel," he added.

Mooni­lal was un­able to di­vulge more in­for­ma­tion dur­ing the brief­ing.

"I am not at lib­er­ty to dis­cuss the con­tents of the meet­ing," he said. Mc­Don­ald, pressed for com­ment, said she just want­ed "to en­dorse what Min­is­ter Mooni­lal has said and just to state that we have very pro­duc­tive dis­cus­sion." She said: "It augers well for what will be dis­cussed in Par­lia­ment to­mor­row." In re­sponse to ques­tions seek­ing de­tails on the meet­ing, Mooni­lal said: "You could con­clude that the dis­cus­sions were not un­pro­duc­tive, were not fruit­less, were not use­less." De­bate on the gov­ern­ment mo­tion is ex­pect­ed to be led off by Mooni­lal and Row­ley would re­spond.