Labour backbencher Chris Agius yesterday touched a raw nerve when he suggested that the State should step in and ensure that so-called “unknown fathers” shoulder responsibility for their children and the mothers, as far as possible.

And in a bid to fight school absenteeism, he also recommended a study on the possibility of linking payment of children’s allowances to children’s school attendance.

Speaking during the debate in committee on the ministry for the family for 2014, he said the phenomenon of unknown fathers needed to be taken seriously, especially when fathers were present for their children’s birth.

Such people needed to be made to shoulder their responsibilities, because it was hard for a single parent to live on social benefits.

Mr Agius said the current situation should not be allowed to continue.

Social Solidarity Minister Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca criticised the Opposition for its negative critique levelled at the government.

The minister denied claims that she was under pressure by birth parents to change the care orders situation.

She said that the proposed changes were undergoing public consultation and the stakeholders had been called to a meeting at the OPM to ensure accessibility and transparency.

Turning to the ageing population, Ms Coleiro Preca said that while the age of retirement was not proposed to be raised, the government was responsible for the best interests of all the population, particularly with regard to the sustainability of pensions.

She said that the pension structure needed to be urgently upgraded to the present needs.

The minister said the social sector had had a budget vote increase of €70 million and this was read by the Opposition as a decrease in various sectors.

She said the government wanted to boast not of the millions invested but of the services rendered and their sustainability.

The services needed to be directed at those who needed most help and it was for this reason that the government was devising a national strategy for poverty.

She criticised the previous administration for declining responsibility in this most sensitive sector, saying that to reach this end, one of the tools being implemented was rigorous means testing.

Parliamentary Secretary Franco Mercieca said the government would introduce its policy on active ageing next Monday and would set up day care centres in Vittoriosa and Balzan.

Speaking on St Vincent de Paul Residence, Dr Mercieca said that certain wards were uninhabitable and the government was committed to refurbishing them.

There was no management structure in SVPR. There was no system of accountability and therefore the government had created a system of management.

The human resources and the finan-cial controller departments were also being structured.

Demand for meals on wheels was not matching supply and the system was being overhauled to provide better and cheaper meals to the larger number of persons requesting them.

The standards for the construction of homes for the elderly were in advanced draft form and would soon be published for public consultation.

He said that the proposals of standards would be for different types of homes, from dementia to terminal care, besides normal care for the aged.

Dr Merciecca said that sheltered employment for people with disabilities who could not enter mainstream employment was being set up with EU funds and this should also relieve the day centres from some of the client burden.

Introducing the debate, Nationalist MP Clyde Puli asked about Minister Coleiro Preca’s vision for social welfare if everything could be sold and bought like citizenship. He said he could see no blueprint, no sustainable direction or concrete measures, even though there was some continuity from the previous administration.

It was worrying that policies were still being finalised while measures such as “out of home care” have been suspended. Was the minister playing for time with consultations because there is no money available?

Mr Puli read out a long list of work undertaken by his predecessors in a number of areas that “transformed Malta from a welfare state to a welfare society” and which went beyond mere cash handouts.

Government MP Anthony Agius Decelis and Nationalist MPs Mario Galea, Stephen Spiteri, Joe Cassar, Claudette Buttigieg and Robert Cutajar took part in the debate.