When we talk about Malta's future, we often return to the same question: how do we encourage young people to form families and have children? Too often, the answer begins and ends with money.
Financial support matters. Tax measures, benefits and other assistance can make a real difference to household budgets. But if we genuinely want to understand why families are under pressure, we have to look beyond the cheque or tax credit. A family does not make the decision to have a child based only on what it may receive from the State. It makes that decision based on whether it can build a secure, decent and balanced life.
This is why, during the recent pre-Budget consultation, I stressed that the time has come for the government to understand that families need more than financial incentives. They need confidence. They need stability. They need time. And, above all, they need a credible long-term plan.
The decision to have children is one of the most important decisions a person can make. It cannot be reduced to a calculation in a Budget document. Parents ask whether they can afford a home, manage childcare, whether their jobs will allow enough time with their children, whether schools and public services will meet their needs, and whether their children will inherit a country in which they can build their own lives.
Housing is one of the clearest examples. A young couple may receive a financial incentive to have a child, but that incentive cannot solve the problem of finding a suitable home. If housing costs consume an excessive share of household income, if families need very large mortgages, or if young people remain dependent on their parents for longer, financial assistance alone cannot create the security that family formation requires.
The same applies to time. We should ask ourselves what kind of society we are building when parents are constantly rushing between work, school, childcare, traffic and other responsibilities. A family needs income, but it also needs time together. Children need parents who are present, not simply parents who are financially supported.
That means family policy must also be employment policy, housing policy, transport policy, education policy and health policy. It must be connected rather than fragmented. A national plan must therefore connect economic policy with social policy, because families experience the country as one system together.
We cannot speak seriously about encouraging families while ignoring congestion, overcrowding, housing pressures, pressure on public services and the rapid pace of change in our country. These issues are interconnected. A family experiences them not as separate government departments, but as one reality.
This is why Malta needs a long-term national family strategy that survives beyond one Budget and, ideally, beyond one electoral cycle.
A real strategy should establish clear objectives and measurable outcomes. It should ask how many families are struggling with housing, how much time parents spend commuting, how accessible childcare really is, how work patterns affect family life, and whether our schools, healthcare services and communities are prepared for future generations.
Government cannot design family policy from a desk in Valletta and assume that a financial measure will solve every problem. A young couple trying to buy their first home has different needs from parents caring for several children. A single parent faces different challenges from a household with two incomes. Grandparents who provide essential childcare are also part of this picture.
Malta cannot separate family policy from the country's demographic future. If people feel that having children means sacrificing housing security, career opportunities, personal time or quality of life, financial incentives alone will not change the underlying reality.
The objective should therefore not simply be to persuade people to have more children. The objective should be to create a country in which people who want children feel they can do so without being forced to choose between family and a decent standard of living.
The Budget is important, but it should be one instrument of a wider national plan. We need to know where Malta wants to be in ten, twenty and thirty years, and then align today's decisions with that destination.
If we want more young families, we need homes they can afford. If we want parents to spend more time with their children, we need better work-life balance and transport systems. If we want children to thrive, we need excellent schools, healthcare and safe communities. If we want young people to remain in Malta, we need an economy that rewards skills and ambition without forcing people to leave their country to find a better quality of life.
This is ultimately about more than the number of children born in a particular year. It is about the kind of Malta we want to build.
Our children should not be viewed simply as tomorrow's workers or as a solution to demographic statistics. They are citizens. They deserve a country that gives them space to grow, learn, live and eventually raise families of their own.
That is why my message is simple: let us stop thinking that family policy begins and ends with money.
Financial support has a role, and Government should continue to examine how it can make families more secure. But money cannot replace time, affordable housing, good public services, safe communities, certainty and hope.
Families need to believe that Malta has a future worth investing in.
And that belief will not be created by one measure in one Budget. It will be created by a long-term national plan, consistently implemented and measured, that puts the quality of family life at the heart of Malta's future.
Tomorrow's Budget should be an opportunity to begin that process. It should not be another collection of short-term measures. It should be a step towards a Malta where starting a family is not a financial gamble, but a choice that people can make with confidence, dignity and hope.
Dr Adrian Delia is PN Shadow Minister for Finance