The Hon. Darmapriya Wijesinghe

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, today’s debate concerns the Aswesuma welfare payment scheme. It is an important programme to protect those pushed into poverty. We had Janasaviya, then Samurdhi, and now Aswesuma. Janasaviya and Samurdhi were open-ended; Aswesuma was designed to be time-bound and to end.

¶ 02 This programme existed when we took office, but many flaws and malpractices remained. Previous governments did not rectify them, perhaps because they did not intend to bring it to a structured close as designed—with annual reviews and corrections. There were no reviews in 2023 or 2024. We planned to review in 2025, but the “Diththa” cyclone delayed fieldwork, so we seek to extend certain components to 2026 to complete data collection and corrections. Specifically, benefits scheduled to end on 31 December 2025 are to be extended by six months via this amendment.

¶ 03 Instead of discussing welfare, the Opposition, including the Leader of the Opposition, focused on attacking the Prime Minister over education reforms, even attempting a no-confidence motion. We challenge them: table it if you have the courage and signatures; we will debate reforms for two days and expose their distortions. They failed to submit their earlier no-confidence against our Deputy Defence Minister, and now they still hesitate. If they have a spine, submit it to the Speaker.

¶ 04 Thank you, Hon. Presiding Member.