The news that the 2016 Budget makes provision for the setting up of a ‘hub’ for disabled persons should be cause for very grave concern for all disabled people, their families and genuine allies of the disability movement in the Maltese islands.

During the 1996 election campaign, I was one of many disabled people who strongly opposed the proposal then put forward by a small number of politicians to convert part of the soon-to-be vacant St Luke’s Hospital into a large, residential unit for disabled people.

Thankfully, the project stalled at the outset.

But it has always been the case that, whenever disability activists insisted that all disabled people want to live out their lives in mainstream communities we have found patronising individuals who swept away this vision as nothing more than an impossible, utopian dream, one that is ultimately not doable. Instead, it seems that some are still proposing large-scale segregated ghettos where disabled people can be warehoused in large numbers.

These proposals always seem to come with liberal assurances that the project will be built and managed to the highest ‘five star’ standards. Sadly, the reality is far, far removed from the marketing hype.

For some, it seems the problem of providing residential services for disabled people is more an exercise in accounting in which bringing down the numbers of potential service users in one fell swoop takes precedence over the development of a sustainable long-term plan that treats disabled people as people rather than as beans to be counted and another account to be balanced.

If, as we are constantly reminded, the economy is doing so well, then it would be more responsible to spend our hard-earned euros the way disabled people want them to be spent

The very same proposal put forward in the 2016 Budget was made shortly after the 2013 general election. Then it was to be a residential service the size of a small village that would include all the ‘amenities’ mentioned in this so-called hub. Since it was to include a few, token non-disabled residents, it was not considered as ghettoising disabled people. But that is exactly what it would have been and what any similar project, marketing-speak notwithstanding, will be.

Luckily, for various reasons, the scheme was a non-starter. However, it seems that the individual behind it is still trying to ‘rebrand’ it as something new and has managed to have it included in the 2016 Budget.

The whole idea of a large residential service is aimed not at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of disabled people themselves but at their parents.

The argument is that the scheme is not aimed at physically disabled people, like myself, but at intellectually disabled people who cannot look after themselves.

First of all, that argument insults me by implying that I can never understand people with intellectual impairment, nor can I every ally myself with their cause. In so doing, it attempts to drive a wedge between physically disabled people, like myself, and our intellectually disabled peers – but we are not falling into that trap.

Secondly, it also demeans and insults the many, young intellectually disabled people who have been raised in an inclusive school environment, who have benefitted from services unavailable to disabled people of previous generations and who, quite understandably, have the same dreams and aspirations of their non-disabled peers.

The new generation of disabled people (whatever their impairment) is far better prepared to cope with adult life and deserves better than a return to the dark days of 19th century paternalism.

I cannot overemphasise that this is an ill-conceived and potentially very dangerous, retroactive step which must be resisted immediately, robustly and vocally not just at the national level but at every level, most especially by all disabled people, parents of disabled people who have the real interests of their children at heart and true allies of the disability sector in Malta and Gozo.

This year, Id-Dar tal-Providenza, described as a beacon of hope when it first opened its doors in 1965, celebrated its 50th anniversary. At the time, thanks to the efforts of Mgr Michael Azzopardi and his supporters, Id-Dar tal-Providenza was revolutionary in its approach to residential care for disabled people.

Since then times have changed, ideas have changed, Maltese society has moved on (even if some people clearly have not). Id-Dar tal-Providenza is now focusing much of its precious energies on small, community-based initiatives and in so doing it is once again showing us all the way forward.

If, as we are constantly reminded, the economy is doing so well, then it would be more responsible to spend our hard-earned euros the way disabled people want them to be spent.

Let me repeat this one last time to make myself absolutely clear: disabled people want to live, learn, work, and love in real communities not in some segregated gilded cage or some cute Marie Antoinette faux-paradise.

That is why we say no to segregation by stealth.

Joseph Camilleri is a former chairman of the Commission Persons with Disability.