Two years and two months after the State Government forced us to go back to the nineties, the Ministry of Development promises us that, as of November 1, it will not be necessary to prove our residence through a paper certificate. However, the supposed death of a measure that should never have been approved, is accompanied by doubts and warnings about the convenience or not of continuing to use a paper that, in the case of unforeseen events, will still be necessary.
The Government's announcement contrasts with the prudence of those who know the sector best. Travel agencies have already advised their users to continue carrying the certificate as a precaution in case there is any incident with the SARA system (Automatic Residence Accreditation System). And one more warning: those under 14 years of age who do not have a DNI and those who have recently changed municipalities will also have to carry the registration document.
It has taken the Government two years and two months to put an end to a decision that, at the time, it justified by citing the alleged cases of fraud committed by those who benefited from the bonus without being entitled to it. Two years later, we still do not know the official data on how many cases have been detected for improper use.
In the middle of the digital era, the Government forced us to certify our residence every time we went to a check-in counter or a boarding gate. And now, without all the certainties, it tells us that it has already fine-tuned a system that has taken much longer to implement than it promised and that, in addition, will not be sufficient or offer guarantees.
It has been a long period of unfulfilled announcements. The implementation of this telematic system for validating residence has been delayed since 2013. First, its implementation was announced in April of last year and finally the date of November 1, 2014 was set. However, we, who do not trust the triumphalist announcements of the Ministry of Development, have presented an amendment to the articles of the State Budgets of 2015 in which we propose that the condition of resident be accredited by means of the national identity document.
I remember that when the measure came into force, with the connivance and silence of the PP deputies and senators from the Canary Islands, a Canary Islands journalist wondered on Twitter if the Government would have dared to adopt such a measure in Catalonia or the Basque Country. I doubt it. Both territories would not have accepted, as we do not in the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, an outrage that has forced us to certify our residence for more than two years.
The excesses with the Canary Islands of the department headed by Ana Pastor are inadmissible. She recovered the resident certificate, eliminated the bonuses for specific air fares for the Canary Islands, has reduced the aid for the transport of goods from 70 to 26 percent, opened the doors to the privatization of AENA, has not incentivized the fifth freedom of the air in the Canary Islands airports and, in just four years, has reduced the budget of the road agreement by 73 percent. Measures that certify the insensitivity of the State Government with the territory that needs the most support to overcome the economic crisis.
Since September 3, 2012, the day the paper certificate came into force, many people have been left on the ground or have had to pay the remaining 50 percent of the ticket in order to travel. The Government apologized in the face of strong citizen opposition, but did not reverse an initiative that the Ministry of Development unexpectedly pulled out of its hat and, two years and two months later, still does not offer specific data on the alleged criminals who have been caught thanks to its infallible system.
Goodbye to the resident certificate? Let's hope so, but we also hope that someone will justify an anachronistic and inconceivable measure in an era in which paper is replaced thanks to the advantages offered by telematics.
Ana Oramas, deputy of Coalición Canaria
