This Government is committing itself to a fair society by taking one initiative after another to guarantee a truly inclusive community. One way of doing this is to ensure we have all the legislative benchmarks and frameworks in place.

The Government is keeping its promise of facilitating independent living as per the UN CRPD, by opening new residential units, improving current residential services, dedicating more resources to community services and developing a long term disability strategy. In other words, by ensuring that the ‘disability policy’ is brought to fruition.

During last Wednesday’s Parliamentary session, I had the privilege of presenting a piece of legislation that is surely a milestone for the disability sector in Malta. This Act, which provides for the setting up of the Sign Language Council of Malta, will register another major development, not only in the disability sector in general, but in relation to the deaf community in particular.

This bill ensures the full participation of deaf persons in the Council, since at least one Council member must be deaf. Furthermore, the bill is sufficiently flexible to have other members from the deaf community or even parents of deaf children as Council members.

We firmly believe in the slogan, ‘nothing about us without us,’ and the enactment of this legislation, which ensures membership of people with disability on government boards and authorities, is surely a strong manifestation of this commitment and is indeed an expression of this government’s belief in people with disability and its desire to empower them.

We have been ‘talking’ about the need for the recognition of sign language for too long. It was only through this government’s initiative and commitment however that we have made concrete changes that will most certainly have a major, positive impact on the deaf community and society at large.

  This community has experienced incessant isolation and this was repeatedly expressed in the number of meetings I held with the deaf community over the years. By way of this Act however, not only will the deaf be more socially included and have their rights guaranteed, but the rest of society will benefit from the social contribution of deaf people too. This Sign Language Act will serve as a bridge; we have already got the ball rolling but we must surely do more and the process is a long and arduous one.

In brief, this Act will set up the Sign Language Council of Malta, which will make sure that there is a commitment by the government to consult with the deaf community on matters relating to sign language. This is a statutory commitment undertaken by government towards the deaf community, which has no precedent in Maltese legislative history. It will also seek to support research related to sign language, encourage the development and recognition of  Maltese sign language and adopt a suitable linguistic policy.

Moreover, the Sign Language Council will prescribe and establish regulations pertaining to the proficiency standards for people who are to act as interpreters. The Ministry for Education is also devising a plan aimed at increasing the number of interpreters in Malta. The considerable shortage in this regard is a result of the dearth of past policy initiatives in this field and has led to the situation we have today, in which we are unable to provide much needed services. Accordingly, a call for applications for the employment of interpreters will be published shortly by Agenzija Sapport.

One of the biggest challenges faced by this government – which it is tackling with a high degree of success – is that of ensuring that specific populations within ‘bigger’ minorities are dealt a fair hand in life and provided with all the opportunities necessary to ensure that they can make their own choices, work towards their aspirations and participate effectively in society.

Enacting this law, in itself, is a great achievement, as another ‘invisible’ community will have the opportunity to bounce back and engage in active citizenship, thus allowing these people to integrate more quickly and successfully in the wider community.

The other milestone, this time in the elderly sector, was surely the launching of the National Strategy on Dementia, a strategy that was published after wide consultation with the public.

I am proud to announce that Malta is one of 21countries in the world to publish a dementia strategy and the first country to publish it in a dementia-friendly format, which was highly commended by Alzheimer’s Europe, who repeatedly tweeted about this remarkable achievement.

The Strategy spans over a period of nine years (2015-2023). It was devised using a top-down approach and the Parliamentary Secretariat will continue to enable persons with dementia to play an active role. That is precisely the reason why we decided to publish a dementia-friendly version.

Despite the fact that the strategy was launched this week, we had already begun its implementation last summer. One of its key pillars is to raise awareness among the general public as to what dementia truly is and how carers for people with dementia can provide adequate and timely care. We therefore published information booklets that target various sections of society and trained several health workers and professionals in dementia care. We are also in the process of implementing an ESF-funded training programme, which is more extensive. This month, training sessions will also be held for all employees at Gozo General Hospital and preparations for the first day-care dementia centre in Gozo are also at an advanced stage.

In the meantime, we remain committed towards a dementia-friendly society, because people with dementia and their caregivers deserve our full support.

On that note, I wish you and your families a very happy Easter.