Raimundo Moreno Méndez, head of Centro de la Familia, has proposed this Tuesday in the Parliament of the Canary Islands a tourist tax of at least one euro per overnight stay to support children and families, which, according to his calculations, would raise 180 million euros annually.
In a appearance before the parliamentary commission studying child poverty, Raimundo Moreno has presented more proposals, in addition to this earmarked tax, such as creating day centers so that children are well cared for while parents reconcile their work.
He has also suggested afternoon school hours, the physical reform of schools, which are "concrete behemoths" that impoverish and depress children, addressing the housing emergency decisively and not "with superficial measures," and signing a Canarian Pact for Childhood 2027-2037.
Regarding the tourist tax, he has lamented that "everyone refuses to implement measures in the Canary Islands regarding tourism," but has drawn attention to its possibilities: "one euro for each overnight stay in the Canary Islands for children," which "is nothing that people cannot contribute," would be 180 million euros per year.
"We have to get our act together, we cannot continue living with tourism that overwhelms us and demands from us" when "we have the greatest poverty in the country, the poorest childhood in the country, that cannot continue to be maintained," he has warned the deputies.
The head of Centro de la Familia has also emphasized the need to act on housing as a structural factor that affects child poverty, and in this regard has proposed the creation of "a special housing commissioner who looks for housing under the stones," because "housing is needed now," not "superficial measures" as, in his opinion, the Government of the Canary Islands proposes.
"The problem is not a joke, it is going to fall on us and crush us," Moreno has warned, because the population has grown and has to live somewhere, and he has lamented that there are 42,000 holiday homes that have left the rental market.
Regarding education, he has warned that child poverty is influenced by infrastructures that "are a shame," "concrete behemoths" in which studying is "depressing and impoverishing."
He has called for the creation of "more open, more convivial spaces, more in contact with nature" and not building institutes that are "a huge behemoth to house a thousand-plus students," as this "goes against childhood and against adolescence, that also impoverishes."
He has advocated for recovering afternoon hours, for example with two educational teams, so that there is a real possibility of reconciling family life and children are not left alone in the afternoon "in a hovel" to "fend for themselves."
The creation of day centers in all municipalities where children, cared for by professional teams, can complement education, coexistence, and nutrition would alleviate the poverty situation, he has proposed.
Raimundo Moreno has also asked Parliament for the achievement of a Canarian pact for childhood and against poverty 2027-2037, but for this he has called for "pulling together and being groundbreaking and changing," and has defended that the Canary Islands have the capacity to transform and do things better.
He has also insisted that resources for children should not continue to be fragmented across social services, health, or education.
He recalled that Centro de la Familia was created 43 years ago and has called for "great remedies" to prevent the same problem from persisting in another 43 years.
Moreno has also defended prevention from birth through coordinated monitoring between institutions that allows for the detection of children's needs and support for their families, instead of acting only when problems have already occurred.
He has also questioned risk declarations, which in his opinion stigmatize poor families, and has proposed replacing them with a special protection approach, without ceasing to intervene in situations that require support.
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