Executive Yuan Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) rebutted media speculation yesterday that the government planned to issue a monthly stipend to children and teenagers.
Su said the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) was simply studying the advantages and disadvantages of giving a subsidy to youngsters.
“It is only a study, not a finalized proposal,” Su said in response to a report published by the Chinese-language Apple Daily.
This quoted a “decision-making official” of the ministry as saying it would suggest that the government give every child under the age of 18 a monthly stipend of NT$5,000 (US$150).
The story quoted Chien Hui-jiuan (簡慧娟), director of the Child Welfare Bureau, as saying that only children born after the policy was implemented would be entitled to the subsidy, but the ministry was deliberating whether it should apply retroactively. The story said the plan was expected to cost NT$12 billion in its first year.
When asked whether government finances could support such a plan, Su said the government’s determination to push relevant social welfare policies remained unchanged, but it was too early to discuss details of such a stipend.
Despite the Executive Yuan’s rebuttal, legislators across party lines voiced their support for the plan.
“This is a good policy because young people [are afraid to] have children since it is a burden to raise a child,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) told a press conference. “That’s why we have almost become one of the nations with the lowest birth rate, like South Korea. We are looking forward to implementation of such a policy.”
Ministry statistics showed that fewer than 200,000 babies are born each year while the number of citizens over the age of 65 had reached 10 percent of the total population.
DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅) said the DPP caucus would support any policy that could help young couples cope with rising unemployment and commodity prices.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) lauded the plan but said the government should exclude the wealthy from the proposal.
KMT Legislator Shyu Jong-shyoung (徐中雄) said such a policy could serve as an incentive for couples to have more children.
KMT Legislator Wu Ching-chih (吳清池) agreed, but stressed the need to rethink the age of recipients entitled to the stipend.
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
HOSPITALITY HIT: Hotels in Hualien have an occupancy rate of 10 percent, down from 30 percent before the earthquake, a Tourism Administration official said The Executive Yuan yesterday unveiled a stimulus package of vouchers and subsidies to revive tourism in Hualien County following a quake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale. The tremor on April 3, which killed at least 17 people and left two others missing, caused the county an estimated NT$3 billion (US$92.7 million) in damages. The Ministry of Economic Affairs is to issue vouchers worth NT$200 at the price of NT$100 for purchases at the Dongdamen Night Market (東大門夜市) in Hualien City to boost spending, a ministry official told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting in Taipei. The ministry plans to issue 18,400