The cost of living adjustment (COLA), which will rise by €9.90 for normal workers and by a €12.50 increase for pensioners, will only be covering what we have already spent during the past year. We will have to wait another 12 months before we are compensated for our extra expenses as of tomorrow.
The increase in children’s allowance is also to be commended, as is the gradual decrease in children fostering allowance which, till now, was being ended abruptly. Also positive is the elimination of any means of testing for people with disability, when it comes to social housing.
The increase in tax rebates for parents who send their children to sports, cultural or artistic activities is to be praised.
It is again disappointing that the minimum wage remains at its present indecent levels. This will only encourage the importation of further cheap/slave labor from abroad, rather than giving decent wages which every worker deserves. Moreover, this severely restricts the value of the increase in benefits for those taking care of people with disability, which are pegged to the minimum wage.
As regards social housing, we have not heard anything about the various delays that have been plaguing the completion of planned units, such as those in Msida and Cospicua. These delays can no longer be tolerated.
As regards the subsidies on energy, subsidies across the board independent of necessity are simply anti-social. There should be reasonable thresholds for every household that should be subsidised, but wastage should then be heavily taxed.
5 million euro extra investment in research is simply ridiculous. The investment should be increased to 3% of the GDP, as is normal in normal countries.
The possibility for people having built on public land to legalize these properties begs the question: is this just an excuse for the government to reward those who have stolen public land from us by giving them legal ownership over this public land?
Minister Clyde Caruana seems to have had a bout of amnesia. This is what Clyde Caruana said in the 2021 budget: “Mr. Speaker, in line with our commitment towards the execution of the Mental Health Strategy 2020-2030, we will introduce new psychiatric drugs on the Government Formulary, complementing the range of mental health services offered in the community, and invest in the planned new hospital for acute psychiatric care close to Mater Dei Hospital”.
We have not seen one brick laid in this new hospital in 2022. Today, Clyde Caruana says that in future years we will build this hospital.
What a nice airy-fairy promise! Minister Caruana, please stop taking mental health patients and their relatives for a ride.
Arnold Cassola
Independent candidate