LATE in the evening, a Minister of State rises to tell the nation what it would take to save the National Insurance Board fund – a bill that will be delayed by a year despite the urging of former ministers and fellow party members. It hardly inspires confidence, does it?

That Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis seems not to want to be anywhere near this announcement is telling.

First came a press release saying there would be no increase for a year, and then the details of the next step have been handed off to Myles Laroda – for whom NIB falls under his remit, absolutely, but if more money was going into people’s pockets rather than going out, one suspects it would be more lauded, in daylight, at the top level.

Former PLP ministers Shane Gibson and Leslie Miller have both suggested that if the rate has to be increased, then get on with it.

As Mr Gibson said, there’s no telling what might be around the corner – the pandemic and the impact of Hurricane Dorian have both shown that we cannot count on avoiding the unexpected.

The reasoning behind delaying the increase is ostensibly to give businesses the chance to plan ahead.

However, if that is the case, then why is the passenger tax increase on cruise ships similarly not delayed? After all, cruise passengers have already paid for their tickets up to a couple of years ahead, and now the bottom line is changing.

The government appears to be scrambling to adjust their demands a little given pushback from the cruise industry – but if planning for the future is a consideration, should that not be the case for all extra taxes and payments?

Meanwhile, the NIB hole grows ever larger as millions of dollars are lost every month.

Perhaps Shakespeare’s Macbeth might be the better advisor – “If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly”.

Of course, that we have reached this point has been due to the lack of action by successive administrations.

For all the words of Mr Gibson and Mr Miller, nothing about NIB’s dwindling funds was done during the administrations they were part of. Nor can the FNM claim the high ground here.

So this is where we have come to.

Mr Laroda gets the job of announcing the increase. Except last night he didn’t even do that. Instead he got to announce there may well be more than one increase. We may get increases every two years.

It should be noted Mr Laroda also gets no small measure of credit – of being a consistent voice since his appointment saying that action needs to be taken.

Well, action is on the way. Delayed. Deferred. And deep in the night, perhaps in the hope that bad news will not carry so far that way.

We do not yet know what the increase will be, though an example given of a 1.5 percent increase may well be a hint. Examples seemed to focus on the impact on a minimum wage, which of course would be a smaller dollar amount in total which perhaps sounds less frightening.

Mr Laroda says it is a small price to pay to save the NIB fund, and that may be so, but it is easy to say that when you’re not the one paying it.

And so we wait again. Quite why we must wait is hard to fathom. Government should rip off the bandage quickly rather than this slow peeling back. If government really wants to give businesses and people the chance to plan, then let’s hear it all.

Perhaps from the top of government next time.