Investments, Industry and Information Technology Minister Austin Gatt yesterday branded the opposition’s latest criticisms of two of the government’s IT schemes as “pathetic”.
One of the schemes being described as examples of pre-electoral gimmicks by the Malta Labour Party deals with the distribution, free of charge, of refurbished used computers to disadvantaged families. The second is the more recent Blue Skies broadband initiative, which is to see the government subsidising the cost of broadband for households that are strangers to such high speed internet access.
The schemes, Dr Gatt said yesterday when speaking to journalists at the launch of a new strategic alliance between the government and 14 Maltese companies, are being portrayed as though they are the “secrets of Fatima” but, in actual fact have been known for some time.
Moreover, Dr Gatt added, the Blue Skies initiative had been included in the most recent National Information Society Advisory Council (NISCO) policy document, which has been circulating for the last four months. The MLP, Dr Gatt remarked, forms part of NISCO and had actually approved the document.
Yesterday’s retort was the latest in a war of words developing between Dr Gatt and the MLP’s IT spokesperson Leo Brincat, who has accused Dr Gatt of launching initiatives in the lead-up to a general election (see also page 5).
On Wednesday Mr Brincat lashed out at the Blue Skies initiative, pointing out is was not means tested and the fact that the 5,000 subsidised subscriptions were being offered on a first-come-first-served basis rendered it socially unjust in that those in the most need might not necessarily be those in the most need of the service. Moreover, the fact that it was only being offered for a one year time frame, Mr Brincat said, meant it did not provide an adequate substitute for a national plan ensuring wider broadband penetration rates.
Yesterday the opposition attacked another scheme in which disused government computers would be refurbished and given to disadvantaged households. The scheme’s details, Mr Brincat said, were not being made public, while claiming pressure was being placed on companies carrying out the refurbishments, simply in order for the scheme to meet electoral deadlines.
“Would it have been better to have simply thrown out the public service’s old computers?” Dr Gatt questioned yesterday. “This pathetic attempt to discredit these schemes shows there is truly no alternative to the government’s policies for the information technology sector.”