Alternattiva Demokratika, the Green Party, has called for an inclusive social policy that recognises and supports choices made by people with intellectual disabilities.
AD spokesperson on disability Claire Azzopardi Lane said the party recognised rights of persons with disability to marry and to found a family.
Azzopardi Lane said a committee led by persons with intellectual disabilities within the National Commission for Persons with Disability, had already expressed their wish for independent living within the community and to be able to choose with whom to live in their adult years.
"They expressed their wish to have opportunities as well as the indispensable support of parents and service providers, to go out and enjoy themselves like other young people, to meet people of the same or opposite sex, and to be able to form and build relationships. They emphasised the difference between support and control where important decisions regarding a more autonomous and a better quality of life are concerned."
Michael Briguglio, AD Chairperson, said notes a number of positive initiatives in the budget with regards to persons with disability. These include the right to continue receiving the disability pension if they work and earn up to a minimum wage, investment in supported living services, services for inclusion in the labour market as well as an increase in the budget for the Commission for Persons with Disability. On the other hand, one notes that the disability pension, which only amounts to 55% of the minimum wage, was not increased."