‘Government aims to better electoral promises,’ says Muscat

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that government was going to be saving more lives as a direct result of the agreement it reached today, whereby MRI scans will start being offered by two private hospitals at no cost to the patient. The contract was signed earlier today between Health minister Konrad Mizzi and Parliamentary Secretary Chris Fearne and the two hopsitals involved, St James and Da Vinci.

“This agreement will mean that more lives will be saved, especially for those that could not afford to wait for treatment,” he said. “MRIs determine what problems a patient has and can even decide whether operations are even necessary.”

Muscat was addressing a Labour Party activity in Gzira, the latest in a series of similar events as part of the MEP campaign. He said that there was still much work to do within the health sector, but said that this was a move which will “drastically cut down” the waiting lists for such services at Mater Dei.

“What before would have taken two years will now equate to a three-month waiting period,” he said to rapturous applause.

Muscat also spoke about the national legal reform. On a day in which Justice minister Owen Bonnici came out in defence of the reform's latest measure - whereby a witness protection programme grants these same witnesses protection by police during court proceedings - the prime minister said that government was committed to making the legal system a “more serious and efficient” one.

He explained that there was still more to do but said that this government had done more in this regard compared to what the previous government had during a considerably longer period in governance. Citing various parliamentary motions which Franco Debono had put forward when he was a back-bencher under the PN government, Muscat said that these reforms were “long overdue”.

 “They should have been introduced a long time ago,” he said. “The previous government had 25 years to implement them but for whatever reason they chose not to.”

Muscat said that government was not satisfied with keeping to its electoral promises but was intent on building on them. Citing the government scheme to offer a stipend to University students who repeated as an example, he said that this had been extended to include MCAST and Junior College students.

“Had we acted like politicians, we would have stuck to University students only,” he said. “But we came to the conclusion that this would have been unfair and so decided to extend it to include all students.”

The PM said that the same argument was used by government when introducing free childcare centres. “The scheme accommodates single parents, working parents, and even those that study.”

Muscat also referred to the recently-published Eurostat figure which showed that the country’s deficit had decreased from 3.3% to 2.8% in one year but stressed that what was more important was understanding that this was done in light of the fact that taxes were also reduced.

Taking a swipe at PN leader Simon Busuttil, the PM said that whatever the outcome of the 24th May MEP elections, government would remain in power, with Busuttil as leader of the Opposition. “At least I sincerely hope he does,” he said somewhat tauntingly.

In closing, Muscat said that despite claims made by Busuttil that the last budget was an electoral one, he ‘guaranteed’ that the next four budgets will be of a similar nature.

Meanwhile, MEP candidate Charlon Gouder urged the crowd to vote for the Labour candidates when they came to vote for their MEPs, as it was the party which “worked for change and did not simply wait for it.”

He said that the PN expected voters to forget the gaffes which the party had overseen whilst in government. Encapsulating the last legislature as one which witnessed “pantomimes in and out of parliament”, he said that the PN lacked credibility. One example of this, he said, was how the PN government had promised to do away with hospital waiting lists as long ago as 2008.

“We as politicians entered politics to serve the help the people,” he said. “And this government is doing everything possible to leave this country in a much better state than it was when it inherited it.”