ADPD on €70 million spend: Malta needs real solidarity not ‘Father Christmas’ handouts

Green Party chairperson Carmel Cacopardo has called the government’s €70 million giveaway in cheques and tax refunds a ‘Father Christmas’ policy that does not address real social solidarity concerns.

“At these critical times what is needed is focused assistance and not haphazard gift-giving.  We do not need  a ‘Father Christmas’ policy but real social solidarity aimed at those who need it most,” Cacopardo said during a press conference in Reggie Miller Square in Fgura on Saturday.

ADPD candidate on the third and fourth electoral district Brian Decelis, said that ADPD agrees this was the right time for public funds to be granted to those left behind due to the pandemic, having suffered a long term negative impact on their quality of life.

“In the first instance there are those who lost their job followed by those whose income was drastically reduced. These vulnerable persons join others of all age groups which pandemic or not are always in need of social support,” Decelis said.

But the AD candidates said the €70m expenditure only helps minimally those who are most in need, “not everybody is need of social solidarity in the current circumstances”.

“For those who work in precarious conditions, pensioners on a low income, low single-wage families and those who depend on social benefits due to physical or mental health conditions, the €200 maximum grant they will be receiving does very little to meet their requirements for a decent living,” Decelis said.

He added that it was misguided to spread the country’s limited resources thinly to everybody instead of targeting those who are most in need. “The handouts will in practice not help those who really need help anyway. It will simply serve as a propaganda exercise on the eve of the election aimed at giving ‘something to everybody’.”

ADPD chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said the misguided effort to spread assistance to everybody, including those who do not need it, was a waste of the country’s resources.

“At these critical times real assistance is needed and not gift-giving: not a policy of Father Christmas but social solidarity aimed at those who need it most.

“We agree that the basic consumption of electricity is subsidised; but it is not right that this subsidy is spread across the board to those who waste our precious energy resources. It would be more just if excess consumption is charged without any subsidy. This also applies also to petrol and diesel. The social, health and environmental cost of waste should be factored in.”

Cacopardo said financial assistance to the vulnerable sectors of society was dependent on fiscal morality. “That everybody pays their dues on time without exception, so that who earns most will be assisting those who are most in need. In spite of all the good intentions there might be, the measures announced by Government this week devalue the sense of social solidarity since it is evident that a substantial portion of the assistance is going to be granted to those who barely need it.”