The recently appointed Minister for Health is on the spotlight for the wrong reasons these days. There are an increasing number of people who believe she should resign for the way she has conducted the affairs of the Social Services Agency, particularly as it concerns the unfair dismissal of Joanna Hernandez and the allegations of abuse surrounding the Doctor Giraldi Home. The reluctance by the Government to set up an independent public enquiry to look into these matters is leading many to conclude that the Government and the Minister have something to hide.
On top of this public unease with the Minister's performance, there is now another issue which has surfaced which puts her in a very bad light as it concerns her conduct in public office. The newsletter The Key, which is being distributed this weekend to households around Gibraltar, accuses the Minister of having lied to Parliament over an issue concerning the Fire Service, a portfolio which she should not hold given that her husband is a fire officer.
The Key prints a copy of a bulletin issued by the Chief Fire Officer in which it is clearly stated that he is acting on instructions from the Chief Secretary and from the Minister herself, yet in answer to a question by Gilbert Licudi in Parliament the Minister said the decision had been taken by the Chief Fire Officer. The issue itself is of no great public importance, it concerns the introduction of a ban being imposed on former .officers from entering the precincts of the Fire Brigade, what.is important is that a Government minister has not told the truth and has misled Parliament.
Gibraltar has, for too long, had to put up with abuses of this nature having to be ignored because of the previous composition of Parliament, under the old Constitution, a resignation by a Government Minister meant that the Government would fall and a general election had to be called. This is not now the case under the new Constitution given that the Government enjoys a majority of three in Parliament. This now allows for the reprehensible conduct of Ministers to be more closely monitored by the public and punished, with Yvette del Agua being the first to fail to live up to public expectations in this respect.
Over and above these important issues of principle, Del Agua seems to have started off with a wrong foot in the Ministry for Health, first trying to contest the criticisms of Opposition Member Neil Costa only to have to concede defeat later, attempting to make light of the plumbing deficiencies in the hospital, and over-seeing an increasing number of complaints from users of the service in her characteristic arrogant ways instead of climbing down from her high horse and accepting that there is something intrinsically wrong in the way health services in Gibraltar are provided. It is time that Gibraltar held its Ministers accountable at any time during their tenure in office and not only every four years. Yvette del Agua must go!
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