Minister of the Family, Children’s Rights and Social Solidarity Michael Falzon said that 81.55% of the proposals listed in the Labour Party electoral programme for 2017 have already been implemented.
“I think the fact that we have realised 81.55% a little over half of the legislation shows the dedication that we have towards the social sector,” he said when addressing a press conference today.
“This is government that promises and fulfils those promises, unlike the Nationalist party. Not only did we implement our proposals, but we also ended up working on the ones they had promised.”
This percentage includes both proposals that have been implemented entirely and those which are still in the process of being completed.
Maya Miljanic-Brinkworth, a research analyst within the Ministry of the Family, Children’s Rights and Social Solidarity, said that the ministry has completed 42% of the proposals from the electoral manifesto.
She explained that in total, 27 out of the 64 proposals have been completed entirely with the ministry completing 13 out of 30 and the parliamentary secretary completing 14 out of 34.
“However, more importantly two thirds of the remaining electoral proposals in our ownership have been completed at 75% or more. This indicates that where funds where available work was conducted,” she said.
Permanent Secretary within the ministry Mark Musu explained that there are different types of proposals, starting from ones which are specific, like raising pensions. On the other hand, there are principals, like poverty, which “require a programme of measures that normally are discussed at a political level and then discussed to be approved into the budget and those measures are then feeding in the electoral promises.”
Musu said that “as the person responsible for seeing through those proposals from the manifesto are realised it is a great satisfaction to report that 80% of the proposals from the manifesto current electorate have realised.”
“In the past years, there has been a lot of focus has been put on the realisation of proposals, so much so, that the government measures its success and our performance as administrators through it,” he explained.
Parliamentary Secretary for Acting Aging and Disabled Persons Silvio Parnis, was also present and he explained that his mission is to shift the mentality of seeing old age as a burden by realising the required changes. This includes the removal of waiting lists for elderly homes, improvement of distribution of services that would allow them to stay at home, facilitating active ageing and improving carers allowance.
“We are working for the elderly to feel like they are part of society and while the government has a number of services we need to make sure that they are at a professional level. Old age is a gift and you need to live it at its fullest.”
He also touched on the topic of disabilities where he mentioned that a five year plan is under discussion for the betterment of their living conditions and representation.