By Vernon Daley, Staff Reporter
Maxine Henry-Wilson, Minister of Education and Health Minister John Junor in Gordon House yesterday. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
THE OPPOSITION Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) last night backed down on its call for the dismissal of Health Minister, John Junor, after it reached a compromise with the Government to explore the removal of child care from the ambit of the Health Ministry.
Both sides reached the agreement after a six-hour debate on a resolution brought by Opposition member, Dr. Ken Baugh. The resolution called on Prime Minister P.J. Patterson to remove the Health Minister from his portfolio in light of a recent report, which showed widespread physical and sexual abuse of youngsters in children's homes and places of safety.
"This represents one of the better days in the House," Leader of Government Business, Dr. Peter Phillips commented, following the approval of the amendments by the House.
The resolution was reworded to remove the call for the Minister's head while requesting the Prime Minister to give child care "the requisite Ministerial attention."
Though vaguely worded, the amendment represents the Opposition's request to remove child care from the Health Ministry, which they argued was not equipped to provide state wards with the care they need.
Opposition member Ernie Smith first raised the issue of the Ministry's suitability to deal with child care during his contribution to the debate. Prime Minister Patterson in the presentation said while there was no hard and fast rule about the proper Ministry to deal with child care, in his judgement, the area was best served under Health.
Opposition Leader, Edward Seaga, later picked up on the point, insisting that the structure of the Health Ministry was inadequate to deal with the problems in the children's homes.
"Since it's obviously not the intention of the Prime Minister to move the Minister dealing with child care, (then) we must move child care from the Ministry," Mr. Seaga said.
He subsequently requested a five-minute recess for both sides to consult on the matter and this was approved by the House. However, the talks ran for about 30 minutes, at the end of which, the compromise was hammered out.
In his contribution Prime Minister Patterson had made it clear that he did not think the Minister had fallen down on his responsibility and therefore would not contemplate his dismissal.
In fact, Mr. Patterson contended that the Minister had been putting plans in place to have a thorough investigation of children's homes and places of safety, well before public concerns were raised about problems at the institutions.
He said Minister Junor had approached him with concerns about reports that he had been receiving and indicated that he wanted to delve deeper into the matter.
"Is that a Minister in dereliction of his duties?" the Prime Minister asked.
Earlier in the debate, Minister of Education, Maxine Henry-Wilson, blasted the Opposition for what she said was an attempt to make the issue of child care "a political football."
In her defence of her ministerial colleague, she described him as an active champion and advocate of the rights of children.
