Rhon­da Krys­tal Ram­bal­ly

On com­ple­tion of the ren­o­va­tion and restora­tion of the Red House, there would be two cham­bers-one for the Sen­ate and the oth­er for the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. House Speak­er Wade Mark said sit­tings al­so may be held si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly. He said the Sen­ate would be lo­cat­ed at the south­ern wing of the Red House while the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives would be lo­cat­ed on the north­ern side. Mark said that yes­ter­day at the launch of a lec­ture se­ries in com­mem­o­ra­tion of the 50th an­niver­sary of bi-cam­er­al­ism in T&T at the Red House yes­ter­day. Mark said: "The ob­jec­tive is to en­sure that when this very pris­tine and his­toric build­ing is com­plet­ed in three years' time, there will be two sep­a­rate cham­bers or hous­es."

He said the tem­po­rary lo­ca­tion at the Wa­ter­front would ac­com­mo­date one cham­ber, serv­ing both Hous­es, while work is be­ing con­duct­ed on the Red House. Mark said the cham­ber was in a state of readi­ness for next Fri­day's sit­ting to de­bate the state of emer­gency. He added: "We are ready. It could be to­mor­row. We are ready. So next week Fri­day, we are more than ready." On De­cem­ber 5, Par­lia­ment will host an in­ter-faith ser­vice at the Trin­i­ty Cathe­dral and on De­cem­ber 19, Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards is ex­pect­ed to ad­dress a gath­er­ing at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my of the Per­form­ing Arts in Port-of-Spain on the top­ic: The role of the Head of State in the bi-cam­er­al sys­tem of gov­er­nance from in­de­pen­dence to present.

More in­fo

The first sit­ting of the Sen­ate oc­curred on De­cem­ber 29, 1961 at 10 am at the Hall of Jus­tice which was lo­cat­ed in the Red House. The first sit­ting of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives was al­so on the same day. The first Speak­er of the House was Clytus Arnold Thoma­sos and J Hamil­ton Mau­rice was the first Sen­ate Pres­i­dent.