The shadow finance minister accused the Government of delivering drawn out Budget briefs that did not allow time for healthy debate on the country’s finances.

Douglas De Couto spoke on the issue, which was raised after several Budget debates over the past few weeks, during the Motion to Adjourn at the close of the Budget in the Senate last week.

The Government blamed the Opposition and said the problem was simply a matter of poor planning.

Dr De Couto argued it was the job of the Opposition to “interrogate, to hold the Government accountable and to seek out information”.

“We in the Opposition have worked very hard to prepare for it, and I know the independents have, and we have seen many instances where the clock ran out, questions weren’t answered, and frankly I find the cynicism of it very disappointing,” he said.

Owen Darrell, the Senate Leader, raised a point of order to say Dr De Couto was misleading the House. He said: “If he is going to talk about the clock running out, he should also speak to the hours and hours of time that we have given to the Opposition to ask their questions that were poorly put together, if I might say.”

Robin Tucker, the Opposition Leader in the Senate, said: “Dr De Couto said that the time had run out for us to even get all the answers.”

Dr De Couto continued: “Listen to the record for the people of Bermuda. This is what that process is for.”

Leslie Robinson, the Junior Minister of Economy and Labour and Public Works, said: “They give us heads they want us to talk about and we give briefs so they get the information. They give us the times that they want us to debate. It is not our debate – poor planning, honestly. It’s been like this for years.”

Dr De Couto said: “We were certainly clear to be grateful junior ministers and senators.”

He was again interrupted with a point of order by Ms Robinson, who said: “As I read in my brief, we gave the Opposition time to give us questions so we could answer the questions that they wanted fully. They chose not to. That is poor planning you cannot put that on this government.”

Dr de Couto continued: “It is hard to answer questions without briefs. You can imagine a different process, but that is not the process we have. It is a choice of the Government to read a whole brief. Many of the junior ministers did an excellent job on behalf of the people of Bermuda, but in many important ministries, that didn’t happen. “