Opposition spokeswoman Patricia Gordon-Pamplin had called on Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister to clear up the confusion over extending three-week terms for tourists.

Her comments came after two families this week went public over problems extending their three-week stay - with one man being told to fly off the Island for a few hours to get around the red-tape.

Yesterday in the Budget debate on the Home Affairs Ministry, Mr. Lister said the rules had not changed and that visitors were welcome to extend their stay if they went through the proper channels.

He blamed distorted headlines for leading to the controversy and said there had been no change in policy but he admitted the substance of The Royal Gazette's story had been correct.

Yesterday Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin wondered if the Minister was asleep at the wheel at his ministry and if his staff knew the policy.

She said: "I say for the benefit of the public make the policy honest. Don't say rules haven't changed. Make the policy clear, people don't know.

"Why tell this man to go to New York and come back? If they are telling visitors this then maybe the Minister is asleep at the wheel. Maybe he has to tell the staff, 'this is the policy and this is what you have to do'."

Mr. Lister said the number of visitors overstaying their time and taking illegal work had been on the increase and so the Ministry had introduced a very stringent criteria for evaluating a visitor's eligibility to stay.

He said: "The policy on visitor's extensions has not changed and, contrary to media reports, the Department has approved extensions of stay where the person has been able to demonstrate that he or she is a bona fide visitor.

"There was a recent example of a repeat visitor who was granted leave to stay, at a local hotel, for the maximum allowable period of six months.

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin said the department was being ridiculous and heavy-handed in asking a visitor to spend $900 flying out to New York and back just to get around the strict three-week rule.

She said: "That money could have been spent down town."

And she also said the department had been heavy-handed with its own staff by calling Police when three Immigration Officers turned up for work at the Airport after their duties had been transferred to Customs.

She said: "That's pretty shabby treatment."

She said that despite years of service one employee was told they would be given a month's pay if they could not accept the change.

Mr. Lister said two of the three had returned to public service - one in HM Custom's. He said a new $1.5 million computer system would help clear up backlogs in work permits which Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin said was giving a "shoddy service" at present.

But Mr. Lister said the system would take a few years to design and build.

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin also questioned low targets for processing other applications such as passports and she wondered why it was possible to get a passport renewed in three days if you paid extra.

She said: "If it can be done in three days for extra then surely it can be done in three days as normal."

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin also wondered about the $1.7 million in the Budget for improving prison as a result of the prison inquiry.

She said: "But that report is still secret."

She said there was a need for more openness. And she called for the inquiry into the death of inmate Steven Mansfield (Pepe) Dill to be made known to the family.

She said other families of prisoners had suffered because the Government had replaced the Treatment of Offenders Board with the Parole Board and then delayed on legal requirements meaning that people were languishing in jail for longer than necessary.