Speeches by the Prime Minister

Address By Dr the Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP Prime Minister of Jamaica At the Special Press Briefing: Hurricane Melissa Recovery On November 6, 2025 ______________________________________________________________   Good morning, Jamaica. We are officially out of the preparation phase. We have done well in the preparation phase, but even the best laid plans would be laid to waste in a Category 5 hurricane. It's as if you have gotten a knockout blow and you're trying to reconstitute, get yourself up off the mat to say what do I do next, and that was kind of like the impact of Hurricane Melissa. In the initial phases of the relief phase, it was almost as if it were a scramble. What is the relief phase? The relief phase is that period of time when the authorities of the Government, the civil society, private sector, and others seek to mobilize relief for those who are most impacted. What is that kind of relief we're talking about? Food, water, medicine, clothing, emergency shelter and services, medical services, search and rescue, or in most cases now, search and recovery of bodies, other services as well, psychological and emotional, the mental health services, and in our…

Statement By Dr. The Most Honourable Andrew Holness Prime Minister  of Jamaica At Session One: Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Growth Leaving No One Behind: Building Our Economies; The Role of Trade; Financing for Development and the Debt Burden On Saturday, 22nd November 2025, 10:15 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. ___________________________________________________   Jamaica supports the global agenda to make economic growth not only strong and sustainable, but also inclusive and resilient. Our story is one of social partnership and sacrifice. We transformed our economy after decades of instability. Through disciplined macro‑fiscal reforms, anchored in responsible debt management, institutional strengthening, and targeted pro‑growth initiatives, we reduced our debt‑to‑GDP ratio, lowered poverty and unemployment, contained inflation, stabilized foreign exchange, and built robust international reserves. Now, our focus is on translating the dividends of sacrifice into investments in our people. Getting the policy mix right is both an economic and moral imperative. Yet, one external shock can undo years of progress. Hurricane Melissa, a Category 5 storm, has devastated seven parishes, its impact will negatively affect our debt trajectory and the road ahead will be challenging. This is our reality today. But it is also the recurring story of vulnerability told by Small Island Developing…

Address By Dr the Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP Prime Minister of Jamaica At the Special Press Briefing: Hurricane Melissa Recovery On November 6, 2025 ______________________________________________________________ Good morning, Jamaica. We are officially out of the preparation phase. We have done well in the preparation phase, but even the best laid plans would be laid to waste in a Category 5 hurricane. It's as if you have gotten a knockout blow and you're trying to reconstitute, get yourself up off the mat to say what do I do next, and that was kind of like the impact of Hurricane Melissa. In the initial phases of the relief phase, it was almost as if it were a scramble. What is the relief phase? The relief phase is that period of time when the authorities of the Government, the civil society, private sector, and others seek to mobilize relief for those who are most impacted. What is that kind of relief we're talking about? Food, water, medicine, clothing, emergency shelter and services, medical services, search and rescue, or in most cases now, search and recovery of bodies, other services as well, psychological and emotional, the mental health services, and in our…

Statement to Parliament By Dr the Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP Prime Minister of Jamaica on the Aftermath of Hurricane Melissa On November 4, 2025 __________________________________   Thank you, Members of this Honourable House. On Tuesday, October 28th, Jamaica endured one of the most punishing natural disasters in our modern history. Hurricane Melissa made landfall near New Hope in Westmoreland as a Category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of 185 mph and a minimum central pressure of 892 millibars. Madam Speaker, experts described Melissa as being "at the very edge of what is physically possible" in the Atlantic Ocean- a storm powered by record sea temperatures and near-perfect atmospheric conditions. Its force was so immense that seismographs hundreds of miles away registered its passage. Melissa is the very first Category 5 hurricane to make a direct hit on Jamaica in the recorded history of such hurricanes, surpassing the previous benchmark set by Hurricane Gilbert, and recently by Hurricane Beryl. Melissa crossed the island with catastrophic winds and torrential rain, inflicting widespread damage—most severely across St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Hanover, Manchester, St. James, Trelawny, and St. Ann. We mourn lives lost, and we stand with the thousands of Jamaicans who…

Address By Dr the Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP Prime Minister of Jamaica At the Special Press Briefing: Tropical Storm Melissa On October 25, 2025 ________________________________________________________ Good morning, Jamaicans, here and overseas, who may be watching this press briefing. Firstly, a few comments on the system itself. The system is quite an unusual one, sitting in the Caribbean Sea for such a long time, making up its mind where it will go. It is obvious that it now has a trajectory where we can, with great certainty, say that Jamaica will be impacted. Let me be clear that the entire Jamaica will be impacted by this storm. The outer bands seemed to be very wide, and it is already affecting the Dominican Republic and Haiti with significant rainfall. We should expect the same. The first impact that we should be preparing for would be heavy rains. Once it becomes a major hurricane, which is projected to be within a day, then we will have heavy winds. The third impact will be the length of time that it will stay. If it continues to be as slow-moving as it has been, then we could expect anywhere from two to…

National Address By Dr the Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP Prime Minister of Jamaica At the Special Update: Hurricane Melissa is now Category 5 On October 26, 2025 ______________________________________________________   My fellow Jamaicans, Hurricane Melissa is now a Category 5 hurricane, approximately a hundred miles south of Kingston, heading westward at five miles per hour. It is projected to turn northward. We are already experiencing rain and overcast conditions. Based on current assessment, all of Jamaica will likely be affected by hurricane conditions, meaning heavy rains and winds above a hundred miles per hour. It is also likely that hurricane conditions could linger over Jamaica due to the slow-moving nature of this system. Given the extended days of rain leading up to landfall and the expected inundation from the actual passage, we can expect general flash flooding across the island. However, low-lying areas, coastal areas, river courses, gullies, and other waterways will overflow either from excess rain or storm surges. Extended rainfall and heavy rain flows will also trigger landslides in hilly areas. Buildings and activities in or along those waterways or hillsides will be at high risk of damage, complete displacement, and loss of life. Hurricane winds will…

Address By Dr the Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP Prime Minister of Jamaica At the Special Press Briefing: Preparedness for Tropical Storm Melissa On October 24, 2025 _____________________________________________________________  Thank you, Minister. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. Someone sent me a message which I thought was interesting enough to share, and the message read, Prime Minister, we haven't seen you in all that have been said. Well, let me say it in this way, there is a government that is made up of ministers, heads of entities, permanent secretaries, various public officers and administrators, and they all must do their jobs. And my job at times is to ensure that they are all well-coordinated and that they're all doing what they're supposed to be doing. Sometimes you are leading from the front and sometimes you are quarterbacking, as the Americans would say, but there is never an absence of leadership, and I'm certain that you would've seen on display the ministers taking responsibility for their various portfolios as it relates to preparedness for the approaching weather event. This is a good segue because during this administration, you would've seen the country at risk at several weather events and other…

My fellow Jamaicans, on this Heroes’ Day, we stand as one people - proud and free - to celebrate the spirit that built our great nation. Ours is a story written in courage and conviction, a heritage born of struggle, guided by faith, and carried forward by generations of Jamaicans who refused to give up on the promise of this blessed island. When we speak of a proud and bold heritage, we speak of men and women who changed the course of history. We think of Paul Bogle, whose courage in the face of injustice taught us that freedom demands sacrifice. We remember George William Gordon, whose faith in fairness and good governance reminds us that leadership must serve the people, not power. We honour Nanny of the Maroons, whose resilience and strategic brilliance showed that freedom must be defended with wisdom and unity. We celebrate Sam Sharpe, who rose from bondage to become a symbol of moral conviction, proving that liberty begins in the mind. We revere Marcus Garvey, whose vision of black pride and self-reliance gave us confidence in our own worth as a people. We salute Norman Manley, who believed that discipline and education were the foundations…

Remarks By Dr the Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP Prime Minister of Jamaica At the NSHP Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, Brandon Hill, Clarendon On October 10, 2025 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We have another 86 units that are currently under construction and further 65 that will begin construction this year. The programme is moving a pace. We want to increase the speed at which the houses are delivered so we are going to contemplate some new building technologies and some new housing products that are, by virtue of the advance in housing technology, now more accessible and affordable and the only challenge we have is that the programme is site specific. We build the houses in almost any area where the land is available once we can get the material to the site and the site does not pose an environmental hazard or risk. Right here, it's a good piece of land, but it's literally almost inaccessible. We had to make a pathway and cut a road to actually build here so those solutions that we're thinking of which are prefabricated housing solutions that come ready built and with amenities that you load on a flatbed and deploy with a crane, possibly…