More than $6,500 of taxpayers' money was spent on Premier Jennifer Smith's February address to the nation.

The Broadcast Commission ruled in August that the televised address was not a Government broadcast, sparking calls by the Opposition United Bermuda Party (UBP) for the Progressive Labour Party (PLP) to refund the costs to Government coffers.

But in responding to questions tabled in Parliament Friday by Shadow Legislative Affairs Minister John Barritt, Government says it does not intend to recover the money from the PLP.

And Mr. Barritt said the ruling party successfully aborted any form of debate on the matter with filibuster tactics, a claim denied by PLP Party Whip Ottiwell Simmons.

Mr. Barritt said he had filed his questions well in time for them to be answered by the Premier at last Friday's sitting of the House of Assembly.

But the PLP Parliamentarians "conspired to abuse Parliamentary practice and procedure" by spending the first hour on Ministerial statements and congratulatory and obituary speeches "so as to avoid having to answer the questions on the floor of the House".

House procedure is that only written answers have to be given to tabled questions if they are not taken up by 11 a.m.

"As it turned out, the Premier was never called upon to answer those questions," Mr. Barritt said, and so no follow up questions could be asked.

"We on the Opposition benches couldn't help but notice how PLP members dragged out their speeches and, in some instances, exceeded the three-minute maximum permitted under the rules; and, regrettably, the one or two who did exceed the limit were indulged by the Speaker."

According to Mr. Barritt, 13 PLP MPs spoke compared to 5 Opposition MPs, and the speeches ended just after 11.

He added that the written answers were not given to the clerk after the session as is the normal practice.

"I was told by the clerk that he had been told that he would not be receiving the answers until Monday.

"There is therefore but one obvious conclusion: the Premier never had any intention of answering the questions in the House on Friday and her colleagues had been put under the whip to fill that first hour so as to make sure that intention became a reality."

House clerk Clark Somner confirmed that the written answers were received by his office on Monday morning.

"I can say that there was no filibustering under the whip and there were no instructions to the whip that there should be a filibuster," said Mr. Simmons.

"Two, I know that the Premier had the answer to those questions and they would have been given to the House had the congratulatory remarks finished before 11.

"As I see it there is no rule that says people cannot give congratulatory remarks until after 11 o'clock.

"The rule is that if they go over 11 any answers must be given in writing and that's what the Premier did.

"The Opposition participated in the congratulatory remarks so they cannot accuse us of filibustering."

He added that the fact that only five UBP MPs spoke and 13 PLP MPs spoke was "no indication that there was a filibuster" because the ruling party outnumbers the Opposition.

Mr. Barritt had submitted three questions about the costs of producing and broadcasting the address.

According to the written response received by Mr. Barritt, production costs totalled $3,644.

The Bermuda Broadcasting Company was paid $2,200 to broadcast the 12 minute speech and VSB received $750.

And to the question: "What attempts has Government made to recover the above costs from the Progressive Labour Party in light of the ruling of the Broadcasting Commissioners of 26th August, 2002, that the address did not qualify as a Government broadcast under the Political Broadcasting Directions 1980?"

The response was: "There was no finding by the Broadcasting Commissioners that the Premier had not acted in good faith in her intent to act within section 3(3) of the Directions namely: "3(3) Nothing in these directions shall, however, be deemed to prevent the Premier of a Member of Government broadcasting to the people of Bermuda in order to provide them with information or an explanation of events of prime national or international importance and seeking the co-operation of the public with such events.

"Therefore, it would not be appropriate to recover the costs from the Progressive Labour Party, as there was no finding by the Commissioners that the Progressive Labour Party, was in any way involved with the broadcast."

Mr. Barritt noted that additional costs were incurred on "the countless Civil Service man hours which were spent on drafting the speech and arranging for its broadcast".

He repeated his party's argument that if it wasn't a Government broadcast then it had to be a party political broadcast which should be paid for by the party.

"Taxpayers should not be called upon to foot the bill."