Mixed marriages and hospital delays on FNC agenda

FNC member Hamad Al Rahoomi will raise questions about the increase in mixed marriages in the country. Ravindranath K / The National

ABU DHABI // An increase in mixed marriages, a delay in opening a hospital in Ras Al Khaimah and standards for public hospitals are all issues expected to be tackled at the Federal National Council on Wednesday.

Eight questions have been raised by FNC members to four ministers ahead of the session.

Dubai member Hamad Al Rahoomi said he has figures showing an increase in Emiratis marrying foreign women since 2012 - in one emirate the rate of such marriages reached 50 per cent, he said.

“My question is to ask the Marriage Fund what are they doing about these trends?” he said, “are they analysing figures and coming up with solutions to address them?”

While the Marriage Fund’s remit is to grants allowances to Emirati couples marrying, Mr Al Rahoomi said that is not enough.

“They are not a cashier to just pay money; we want to know if they are tracking these trends,” he said.

“We are not against foreigners but we are already few in number and this will affect the population ratio.

“I want to know why that is the case.”

The member also raised a question to the education minister, Hussain Al Hammadi, who is also the head of the Federal Authority for Human Resources, about recent job advertisements from a government organisation.

“The email they included for applications was a personal email and did not belong to the authority that posted the ad,” he said.

“Some nationals called me and asked, ‘how can we see these job opportunities and send our applications to such an email?’”

Mr Al Rahoomi already received a written response from the minister saying the matter will be followed up and, “yes, it should not be a personal email, but an official one”.

Officials are also expected to answer five questions raise by Ras Al Khaimah member Salem Al Shehhi.

He asked the health minister, Abdulrahman Al Owais, why there has been a delay in opening Bin Imran Hospital in RAK and what standards are being followed when establishing public hospitals.

He also asked the education minister about the number of Emirati teachers that have resigned and have been recruited recently.