The deputy spokesperson for the Gomera Socialist Group Parliamentary Group (ASG), Jesús Ramos, defended this Tuesday, in the plenary session of the Canary Islands Parliament, that the determination of the quotas for public school cafeterias take into account the extra cost borne by families with sons or daughters with recognized disabilities who reside on non-capital islands. The deputy has stressed the importance of recognizing this reality in La Gomera, where accessing certain treatments and services requires traveling to another island.
During the debate on the non-law proposal promoted by the Canarian Nationalist Parliamentary Group, Ramos thanked deputy Natalia Évora for incorporating the ASG amendment into the transactional text. “We believed that it was important that this initiative recognize something as fundamental as the expenses that also come with living on a non-capital island,” he said.
Ramos explained that the expenses associated with disability increase when families need to leave their island to receive care. In the case of La Gomera, El Hierro and La Palma, he pointed out that these trips are normally made to Tenerife. “To access some therapies, to even be able to send some children to school or even to be able to provide specialized care, they have to move to another island,” he explained.
The initial proposal proposes increasing by 1,600 euros the income limits established to determine each installment when the family has a son or daughter with a disability. According to its explanatory statement, the fees range between 32 and 62 euros per diner, and the scale considers the income and composition of the family unit, but does not specifically consider disability and the additional expenses that it may generate.
The ASG amendment adds the need to assess the socioeconomic circumstances of double insularity in the review of these criteria. Its objective is to guarantee effective equality of opportunities and prevent residing on a non-capital island from posing an added economic disadvantage in accessing the school cafeteria. For the affected La Gomera families, this proposal also seeks to recognize the effort of going outside the island to specialized services.
The ASG deputy spokesperson in the Autonomous Chamber insisted that the public response must allow, “regardless of where we live,” families to be able to access services with the same quality and efficiency.
Likewise, he reiterated ASG's favorable vote for the initiative and demanded the commitment of the administrations to those who have people with disabilities in their care. “The responsibility of public administrations has to be above all else,” he said.
