A total of 130 social units were allocated by the Housing Authority during the 2017 general election campaign, which accounted to 16 times the number of units distributed in the previous four months.

Opposition MP Ivan Bartolo flagged the matter during the debate on the financial estimates of the Social Policy Ministry on Wednesday evening.

He said it was very telling that the bulk of the social units distributed by the Housing Authority in the first half of 2017 was concentrated to the last few weeks before the snap June 5 general election.

Citing from a reply to a parliamentary question tabled a few weeks ago, he said that 130 of the 139 units handed out that year occurred between the start of May, when the snap election was announced and June 3, two days before the election itself.

Mr Bartolo also took government to task over the €50 million social housing project, which he said had been promised in the last four Budgets but had not yet materialised.

Reacting to these remarks Parliamentary Secretary for Housing Roderick Galdes insisted that the social accommodation project was nearing completion. He invited the PN MP to an onsite inspection.  He also pointed out that 70% of housing problems were due to broken marriages.

Government, Opposition clash on poverty figures

The debate was characterised by conflicting claims on poverty from government and the Opposition.

Citing from Eurostat data, Mr Bartolo said poverty in Malta was on the rise with those at risk reaching 90,000. Such concerns were being raised by entities such as Caritas, the Millennium Chapel and NGOs running shelter homes and food banks. Yet, the government was living in a parallel world as it was insisting that poverty was in decline, Mr Bartolo remarked.

Winding up the debate, Social Policy Minister Michael Falzon rubbished such claims and accused the Opposition of making “deceitful” statements. While noting that Mr Bartolo was comparing 2018 data with that for 2008, he said the rate of social exclusion had dropped to its lowest level since 2005.

Moreover, he said that those at risk of poverty had declined by 5.6% since 2013, down to 19% which was below the EU average. Dr Falzon added that the number of people suffering from severe material deprivation had fallen down drastically from 43,000 to 14,000. He noted that some of these figures were even reproduced in the PN’s pre-budget document.

The Social Policy Minister refuted claims that the government had lost its social soul. He noted that for 2020 this ministry alone would get a record allocation of €1.8 billion, which was almost a third of the entire budget and a 51% increase on the social expenditure over 2013.

Call for a debate on living income

Opposition MP Claudio Grech called for a debate on living income, saying the need for such a discussion was never as pressing as in the current circumstances.

Mr Grech remarked that Malta’s robust economic growth was not reflected in workers’ wages. He called for a change in approach to start measuring economic growth from a social wellbeing perspective as this was a much truer reflection of the quality of life.

Time had come to debate living income, possibly within the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development. He warned that there was a huge disparity between the way in which the economy was growing and people’s quality of life.