First time MP George Scott has not been heard from much during his first year as a legislator, but he has some fresh ideas about housing, seniors and Immigration and is looking forward to Government?s social agenda initiatives being debated in Parliament.

Mr. Scott said people should consider settling in retirement communities abroad as a more affordable way to live out their golden years, and that the Immigration department should pre-screen potential foreign workers to prevent abuse and have a ready pool of people ready to fill job vacancies when they occur.

He said he was aware of one situation where a foreign worker who had landed a job as a chef in a Hamilton restaurant turned out to be a bus driver with no chef?s experience.

He recommended that Government use a system of quotas to take control of who is brought into the country and take that power away from employers.

And foreign employees set up their friends and family with jobs in Bermuda ? a dynamic which leads to the bus driver becoming a chef.

Mr. Scott entered Parliament for the first time following the General Election in July, 2003 when he won the poll to represent Warwick North Central.

On affordable housing, the ruling party MP said that changing the dynamics of building houses in Bermuda could go a long way toward solving the crisis.

Mr. Scott is advocating a similar model to that used in Curacao, where the Housing Corporation is more directly involved in constructing housing and contractors are out of the picture.

In addition, the Bermuda Housing Corporation could purchase building supplies and materials on a wholesale basis to yield even greater cost savings.

He said the arrangement would also improve standards of construction which he believes has dropped considerably in recent years.

?There are so many small contractors out there but they are not putting out quality products,? Mr. Scott said.

?If you were to ask any contractor out there what standards they are using they couldn?t tell you ? they?re just building houses. We are using Bermuda standards ? whatever that is ? and if you were to send that person to an international forum, they would be lost.?

Bermudians in the construction trades are multi-skilled and don?t specialise, he added, while the imported worker tends to be specialists.

?A Bermudian is skilled at doing many things. A person coming in from a bigger country has to hide behind his friends, which is another non-Bermudian, so they cannot see that they cannot do all that.?

But a lack of specialisation has contributed to falling standards, Mr. Scott continued.

On seniors, Mr. Scott said that the high costs of living in Bermuda meant that it would always be difficult to make ends meet on a pension that is just a small fraction of one?s working income.

Bermudians should follow the practice of many other countries where people retire somewhere less expensive than where they spent their working lives.

Government should be giving people the option by offering information on retirement communities around the world.

The benefits will be reciprocal as Bermuda would be building relationships with other countries.

?If I?m earning $4,000 a month and when I retire it?s just $1,000 that?s a big drop in income,? Mr. Scott said.

?The mathematics doesn?t work.? But $1,000 a month in retirement communities in Costa Rica, Brazil, Africa and many other countries would go a long way ? even when taking into account medical and other needs.

He said he personally was looking to leave the Island and settle somewhere else upon retirement.

?I like this country, but I don?t want to be here 365 days a year... where you go to the grocery store and $100 is a bag of groceries.?

?I hear the passionate cries from (Opposition seniors? spokesperson) Mrs. Jackson but you cannot do it all here, and you cannot expect the Government to do it all either.?