Politicians again traded verbal blows on the issue of seniors rent rises at the Bermuda Housing Trust in the motion to adjourn on Friday night.

UBP seniors spokeswoman Louise Jackson said residents at the four homes who had seen rents double or treble were not getting answers on the need for the rise.

She said the Trust had been set up by benefactors to help the poor but now rents had gone up - in some cases from $305 a month to $650.

Mrs. Jackson said Government did not seem to care about the plight of seniors but Government backbencher Walter Lister said $1.8 million had been put in the budget for seniors.

Mrs Jackson replied: "That's one third of the travel budget. Seniors understand who cares for them and who could not care less."

Government MPs took issue about the claim they didn't care with several saying the PLP had fought long and hard for the disadvantaged.

But UBP health spokesman Michael Dunkley said it was about what was going on now, not in the past.

Mr. Dunkley also raised the issue of the number of civil servants who had attended the budget debates, only for ministers to read the brief for most of the time instead of giving over time for questions to which the experts might have helped out.

He said: "It's not a brief, it's more like a library.

"You have an average of seven (civil servants) every budget debated."

He said the civil servants would have been better off getting on with their jobs rather than listening to speeches.