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Dr. Douglas De Couto, JP, MP

Dr. Douglas De Couto, JP, MP

1768
Speeches
616,883
Words Spoken
69
Sittings Active
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
2 words
—perhaps volume—
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
11 words
—are people being paid by the decibel, Mr. Speaker? [Inaudible interjections]
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
10 words
So, we have talked about your position — [Inaudible interjections]
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
21 words
—and we can have legitimate conversations about some of the ministries. For ex-ample, Mr. Speaker, why does the Minister of Fi-nance—
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
159 words
Why, Mr. Speaker, does the Minister of Finance get paid less the Attorney General? Now, of course, I have an interest in that, as you know, by my Shadow position. In fact, I think the Premier (inadvertently perhaps) spoke eloquently about why the position of Minister of Finance should in fact be its own position and not be done by …
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
9 words
—in history, Mr. Speaker. [Inaudible interjections and laughter ]
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
247 words
Or wait for their turn, Mr. Speaker. Now, I know, some might say, Well, DeCouto, you work in insurance. Don’t tell me about money. Fair enough. That would perhaps be one contribution as to why my party is having a conscience vote. So the individual voter can assess my comments and they can decide for themselves. Now, I would say, …
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
5 words
In this House. [Inaudible interjections]
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
294 words
In this House. And some will say, Well, I am out there cutting grass, painting bus stops, making donations. I would suggest, Mr. Speaker, that those functions are better handled by the Government instead of MPs having to pick up the slack where the Government is not doing the job it should. And perhaps if we wanted to talk about …
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
165 words
Yes, Mr. Speaker, I am using the word could. This is the sort of thing one might have a reasonable conversation about if they wanted to really reform this issue, which this motion does not do. And I believe I did . . . I will also say that we could perhaps find ways to make it easier for people …
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
10 words
—what I would call the set pieces — [Inaudible interjections]
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
3 words
—in this Chamber.
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
56 words
You know, I will make an observation for the listening public. I would talk about professionalism. As you know, people come in and out of the Chamber. Sometimes they go do some other business. I am looking around. I do see relatively full benches on the Government side for this part of the business. [Inaudible interjections]
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
86 words
So I think the public would like to know that, Mr. Speaker. And I know Government can expedite legislation when it wants. I am thinking about some various examples. So I feel like if they really took reform seriously they could expedite that and bring back something more fully baked. Also, I have a real problem with the retroactivity of …
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
17 words
I don’t know. If it had been done before, I would not have supported it. [Inaudible interjections]
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
32 words
But let me close— [Inaudible interjections] 220 28 March 2025 Official Hansard Report Bermuda House of Assembly Dr. Douglas DeCouto: —let me close with this. Let me close with this, Mr. Speaker.
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
75 words
I know the Premier has talked a lot about the formalities and the procedures and perhaps to those listening you might think, Oh, maybe the Premier didn’t bring it. Maybe this just magically happened. But note, this was approved by Cabinet. And you know, listening public, if the Government did not want this to happen, this would not have happened. …
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
13 words
Point of order. Hon. E. David Burt: What is the point of order?
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
75 words
Mr. Speaker, the Premier is misleading the house by implying that in fact it was not a Cabinet decision, and it is not a Cabinet collective responsibility to bring this motion to the House and these proposed pay rises . When in fact he stated that it is. Thank you. 224 28 March 2025 Official Hansard Report Bermuda House of …
28 Mar 2025 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly
6 words
Yes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker .