The extension of parental leave, the access of foreigners to the National Health Service and the parliamentary commissions of inquiry into Santa Casa and Efacec are some of the ‘dossiers’ that expire with the dissolution of parliament.
After the motion of no-confidence in the mainland PSD/CDS-PP Government that fell last week and the dissolution of the Assembly of the Republic, with effect from Thursday, the deputies tried to speed up some outstanding ‘dossiers.’
The parliamentary commission of inquiry into the twins treated with the drug Zolgensma still managed to approve its final report, however, other parliamentary inquiries fell by the wayside.
There are several ‘dossiers’ that deputies leave along the way, starting with the extension of initial parental leave to six months paid at 100%, which originated in a citizens’ legislative initiative and was being worked on in the parliamentary committee on Labour, Social Security and Inclusion.
This legislative process was already advanced and BE, PCP, Livre and PAN still tried to have the votes taken in plenary after the PSD postponed the vote on the specialty, but this request was rejected by social democrats and CDS, with the abstention of the PS.
Citizens’ legislative initiatives can pass from one legislature to another but only once, something that has already happened with this one.
Bills by the PSD, CDS-PP and Chega to change the conditions of access of non-resident foreign citizens to the National Health Service (SNS) and the parliamentary consideration requested by the PS to the Government’s decree-law that revoked the residence permit procedures based on expressions of interest are other processes that expire with the dissolution.
In particular, there was a PSD bill that provided that political office holders would be automatically notified after accessing their income statement and eliminating redundancies in the process of submitting these documents, and another from the PS, which intended to streamline some rules on filling out the single income statement, assets, interests, incompatibilities, and impediments and clarify aspects of the regime applicable after the exercise of executive functions.
The extension of subsidised housing credit to those who live with a person with disabilities, changes to the legal regime of TVDE, the creation of a Statute of the Elderly, or the recognition of the firefighter profession as a risk and rapid wear and tear profession are among the processes that remain pending until a next legislature, if the parties decide to resurrect them.
The regulation of lobbying, a topic that has been repeatedly postponed by parliament, is another topic that is left for a next one. Chega and PSD submitted initiatives on the representation of interests, but the projects were not even voted on in general.
In the last marathon of votes in parliament, deputies approved the elimination of inequalities in the allocation of the fixation supplement for prison guards in the autonomous regions, the creation of a compensation scheme for displaced teachers, the possibility of foster families being candidates for adoption, and a regime of justified absences for women suffering from endometriosis.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
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