At these critical times what is needed is focused assistance and not haphazard gift-giving, ADPD – The Green Party Chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said

“We do not need a ‘Father Christmas’ policy but real social solidarity aimed at those who need it most,” he said in Fgura this morning.

Cacopardo said the misguided effort to spread assistance to everybody, include those who do not need it, leads to the waste of the country’s resources, something we have seen happening in other areas.

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.

Our country’s resources are limited. It therefore makes sense that assistance is targeted towards the needy and not spread out.

It goes without saying that financial assistance granted from time to time to the vulnerable sectors of our society is dependent on how we all follow 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.

Instead of a gift-giving policy we need one that assists those who are most in need – social solidarity and not a policy of Father Christmas, concluded Cacopardo.