Nationalists pledge €1,000 per child in specialised pension fund

"Everything is possible... if our finances stay on a sound footing," Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said today of new proposals he unveiled for parents and their children. "We are planning to create 25,000 new jobs in the next five years, as long as we keep our public finances aimed at reducing our budget to zero and getting a surplus."

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has pledged to invest €1,000 in a special pension account for every child born from 2013 onwards, if the Nationalist government is re-elected to power.

Gonzi said today that one of the biggest challenges for future generations was to have a sustainable and adequate pension for the future.

He said the government had already faced the immediate challenge of increasing the contribution rate and retirement age as part of the first phase of pension reform.

Announcing four specific measures aimed at childcare and improving work-life balance for children, Gonzi said every child born would have a specialised pension fund that will start off with €1,000 from the government, and will be administered together with the financial institutions.

Gonzi said the PN would publish details of this fund later, since it would involve the participation of financial institutions.

The prime minister also said the PN would introduce a €5 million voucher-based system for parents to choose the childcare centre of their choice, whether run by the government or private companies, and to parents who are either in full-time employment or studying.

The two other measures Gonzi said a re-elected Nationalist government would introduce were sick leave for working parents whose children fell sick, and a budgetary measure to increase basic children's allowance from €350 to €450.