Parliamentarians will not get the proposed 2.5 per cent of the budget for develop-ment programmes in their con-stituencies this year.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who had pledged to set aside 2.5 per cent of the budget for Members of Parliament to carry out development activities in their constituencies, told his colleagues that the Government would not be able to fulfil that promise in 2008.

Never have had it so good

"While it is not going to be possible to deliver the 2.5 per cent this year, what I will say emphatically is that Members of Parliament and their constituencies, especially when you sit on the northern side, will never have had it so good," he said in Parliament on Tuesday.

Mr. Golding said he has asked Shahine Robinson, state minister with oversight responsibility for the Constituency Development Fund, to begin sensitisation meetings with MPs.