Government roundly rejects as pure fabrication the allegations made last week by the Opposition that the Minister of Social Affairs has treated the mother of a disabled person in an inhumane and compassionless manner.
Mrs Tony Beiso, whose son attends St Bernadette’s Occupational Centre, has been seen by the Minister on numerous occasions, most recently on the 5 January 2006 and on the 12 September 2006, on both occasions in the company of relevant officials. At no time has the Minister or any member of her staff told Mrs Beiso to “put her son in a home” as the Opposition alleges, or treated her in a manner other than with the utmost of respect and courtesy. Neither is it true that there has been an inordinate delay in the Minister answering her correspondence, or that a meeting with a member of staff, as promised by the Minister, never materialised.
Mrs Beiso wrote to the Minister on the 22 May 2006 asking her to investigate a complaint in relation to her son. The Minister replied on the 2 June 2006, informing Mrs Beiso that her complaint was being looked into and that she would shortly be given an appointment by the Social Services Agency to discuss her concerns. Mrs Beiso was seen by the Team Leader of the Adult Services on the 6 June 2006.
Mrs Beiso has her own very personal views, which she is perfectly entitled to hold, about the whole issue of disability. These views differ greatly from those of the professionals in the field and indeed with the views of the majority of the service users and their relatives. As a consequence, she refuses to make use of the very popular respite service which gives temporary relief to relatives of disabled persons. Contrary to the long-established policy of delivering respite in Dr Giraldi, the Minister exceptionally and on humanitarian grounds, approved funding for round the clock care for her son in her own home over a period of three weeks, whilst Mrs Beiso travelled to the UK for medical reasons. In addition, she has been assisted with the funding of specialist equipment to cater for her son’s needs at home.
The Social Services Agency employs 175 members of staff and offers many different services to hundreds of users. For the Opposition to use this particular incident, the substance of which is in any case untrue, and a series of complaints all stemming from the same vociferous minority, as justification that the Social Services Agency is in crisis, just goes to show the irresponsible and scaremongering tactics that they will resort to in order to discredit the Government. Before making such wild accusations, the Opposition should recall its shameful track record on social services in general, and in particular in relation to the disabled. During eight years, the Opposition froze the allowance payable to the disabled, they froze the disabled tax allowance, there was no increase of staff in social services, there was no funding for new services, they never assumed responsibility for Dr Giraldi and were happy to allow the church charity to run this facility on a shoestring budget.
It is therefore the Government’s view that their complete neglect, inaction, and lack of funding in this area, contrasted with their newly found concern for the disabled, is yet another monument to the Opposition’s lack of political honesty and credibility.
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