Sport and Youth Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dar­ryl Smith says he has apol­o­gised to Op­po­si­tion MP Bar­ry Padarath for refer­ing to him as a "princess" dur­ing last Sat­ur­day's Bud­get de­bate in Par­lia­ment and he is now al­so apol­o­gis­ing to the Les­bian, Gay, Bi­sex­u­al and Trans­gen­der (LGBT) com­mu­ni­ty if any­one was of­fend­ed by his com­ment.

Smith's re­mark prompt­ed Padarath to de­clare he would not be bul­lied and it al­so caused a firestorm of crit­i­cism on so­cial me­dia, among non-gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tions and the Coali­tion Ad­vo­cat­ing for In­clu­sion of Sex­u­al Ori­en­ta­tion (Caiso) group, lob­by­ists for the LGBT com­mu­ni­ty in T&T.

Asked yes­ter­day by re­porters about the neg­a­tive re­ac­tion on the is­sue and apolo­gies, Smith said at the tea break of yes­ter­day's Fi­nance Com­mit­tee meet­ing in Par­lia­ment: "My­self and the MP (Padarath) shook hands and I apol­o­gised to him...it hap­pened in the tea room of the Par­lia­ment and we move on and get things done."

He said the apol­o­gy took place short­ly af­ter the in­ci­dent.

Asked what the re­mark was meant to con­vey, if it was a joke, slip or what, Smith con­firmed it was a slip as he had been mean­ing to say Padarath's con­stituen­cy Princes Town. He al­so said he had apol­o­gised right af­ter it oc­curred.

Asked by T&T Guardian if he would now al­so apol­o­gise to the LGBT com­mu­ni­ty, Smith said: "Cer­tain­ly, I apol­o­gise if I have of­fend­ed any­one. I have apol­o­gised to Bar­ry and we are okay and I apol­o­gise if any­one took of­fence; if they did, it was not meant to of­fend any­one." (GA)

PM ab­sent again from Par­lia­ment

Prime Min­is­ter Kei­th Row­ley was a no-show again for yes­ter­day's Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee meet­ing, al­though he did chair the week­ly Cab­i­net ses­sion.

The Fi­nance Com­mit­tee was told by chair­man, House Speak­er Bridgid An­nisette-George, on Wednes­day that Row­ley had asked to be ex­cused that day due to ill health. The Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter (OPM) was list­ed third on the com­mit­tee's agen­da to be scru­ti­nised on Wednes­day re­gard­ing ex­pen­di­ture and oth­er is­sue out­line in the Bud­get.

But com­mit­tee mem­bers were told the OPM had to be de­ferred un­til yes­ter­day due to the PM's ab­sence.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Min­is­ter Max­ie Cuffie said Wednes­day that Row­ley had a rou­tine den­tal pro­ce­dure and was fine. Cuffie said he chaired the Cab­i­net meet­ing (which was held in the Par­lia­ment build­ing) and had alert­ed MPs that he (PM) al­so had a meet­ing.

Cuffie could not say if Row­ley had root canal or what den­tal pro­ce­dure was un­der­gone. Cuffie said: "He spoke well, as nor­mal."

Asked if Row­ley would at­tend to­day's third leg of the five-day Fi­nance ses­sion to an­swer queries on the OPM, Cuffie said Row­ley didn't need to be there as the Fi­nance Min­is­ter was there.