No agreement on Opposition motion means eagerly anticipated Budget vote

With no agreement yet in sight for a debate on Labour's motion to stop the privatisation of public car parks, it seems both sides are viewing Budget day as the last week before Franco Debono makes good on his threat not to support the government.

Labour deputy leader for parliamentary affairs Anglu Farrugia today proposed three dates for the debate of the Opposition's motion, telling Leader of the House Tonio Borg that the government did not have a majority to steam ahead on the parliamentary agenda in the run-up to the Budget speech. "We are proposing the 18 and 25 October, and the 1 November to have this debate," Farrugia said.

On his part, Borg said the government was proposing the 8 November - a Thursday - for the debate of the motion, to be continue a fortnight later, reinstating what was previous parliamentary practice to debate such motions and private members' bills on alternate Thursdays.

The Speaker of the House last week proposed a debate on the motion for the end of October, which the Opposition had turned down, having insisted for a debate this week and even presenting a motion to adjourn the House and proceed to the debate.

The Budget is expected to be presented on a Monday in the month of November, to be followed by the Opposition leader's speech the following Monday, and a vote in the House taken two days later. "We have to wait for the green light from the European Commission... but we cannot just come up with a date now. It is definitely scheduled for November," Borg told the committee.

"The committee today was discussing a possible date for the debate of the Opposition motion calling for the withdrawal of a privatisation process for public car parks, after Speaker of the House Michael Frendo ruled that both sides should agree in committee instead of forcing the debate by an adjournment motion.

"The spirit is for us to reach a conclusion on the matter in a reasonable way," Frendo said.

Nationalist MP Franco Debono however was more interested in questioning the Leader of the House's urgency to discuss the bill regulating in vitro fertilisation.

Interrupting Tonio Borg, Debono presaged that he would not have much time to speak on what he felt were urgent matters. "I'd say the party financing bill, especially since the Council of Europe's Greco (group of states against corruption) are running after us, and since I tabled a motion yesterday, we should see what is really urgent, if Borg thinks that the IVF bill is urgent."

Fifteen minutes later, Debono again raised attention to the urgency of his five pending motions. "If the Stability Pact or the IVF bill were indeed as urgent as Dr Borg makes them out to be, why was our summer recess so long?"

Debono referred to his motion filed Wednesday evening to stop the €12 million lease for St Philip's Hospital, insisting there was "an entire furore from the public" about the deal the health ministry reached with St Philip's owner and former Nationalist MP Frank Portelli.

Again he referred to his party financing bill, insisting it was a "fundamental" law still missing from Maltese legislation, and putting it in league with Albania as the two Council of Europe countries without proper party financing laws.

St Philip's Hospital motion

On his part, independent MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando said he shared the sense of urgency expressed by Debono in calling for the debate on both the Labour motion and Debono's no-confidence motion in transport minister Austin Gatt.

"I also understand Hon. Borg's position that he cannot supply a date for the Budget, but I recommend that any urgency for the Budget date could be suspended if we had to debate the no-confidence motion before."

Pullicino Orlando also raised the issue Debono highlighted in his motion on the St Philip's hospital, questioning why the currently derelict St Luke's Hospital was not refurbished to take in patients currently being accommodate inside the corridors at Mater Dei Hospital.

"Why are we spending money on an abandoned private hospital when we could be spending it on an abandoned public hospital. This is not even something for the Public Accounts Committee to verify. It is simple common sense and respect towards the public's feelings here," Pullicino Orlando said.

"The public has appreciated the government's repeal of the car park privatisation. The same should happen for the St Philip's hospital deal: it should be stopped now, and not signed and then be debated within the PAC."

Economic and financial affairs committee

Speaker Michael Frendo also called for the creation of a parliamentary committee to debate economic and financial affairs, noting the length of the debate that had taken place in the past weeks. "It is of enormous urgency and importance," Frendo said. "Especially considering the way our budgeting system is going to change for eurozone countries and members of 'the stability treaty."