Members of House Business Committee plan visit at new parliament
House Business Committee meets for the first time – deputy Opposition leader Simon Busuttil attends his first and last meeting.
Members of the House Business Committee are planning a visit to the Renzo Piano building in City Gate to establish what course of transition to employ as the House prepares to move to the new premises.
A presentation on the new parliament will also be made to the members of the committee next week.
Speaker Anglu Farrugia also read out a letter in which Prime Minister Joseph Muscat revealed the Cabinet's plan for the Renzo Piano building to be accessible to the general public as well.
In his letter to Farrugia, Muscat said the House Business Committee must see what office space has been made available at the new building and whether this would cater for the needs of a bigger government and a modern parliament.
"On its part, the government will be relaying what information is available and other related details," Muscat told Farrugia, adding that Louis Grech, Infrastructure Minister Joe Mizzi and the PM's project consultant Charles Buhagiar will be responsible of relaying the information.
Farrugia will also be leading a consultation process on how to manage the transition process and for it to be smooth. The Speaker also expressed his satisfaction at how plans presented by the Bank of Valletta for a permanent exhibition on the history of the Maltese parliament at the new site.
Deborah Schembri, the government's deputy whip, also said that one had to discuss the role of parliamentary committees according to the changes being planned to the Constitution.
"It's important to discuss what roles the committees will be playing - especially when considering that committee rooms had originally been left out of the plans and were then placed in the basement," he said.
PN-elect Simon Busuttil also attended the meeting in his current capacity as deputy leader of the Opposition. His presence would be the first and last given that next Wednesday he is expected to be confirmed as the new leader of the PN, making him the new leader of the Opposition.
Busuttil in fact requested the government side to cancel next Wednesday's parliamentary sitting given the election taking place at the Dar Centrali when Busuttil will be confirmed leader.
The request was upheld.
The House Business also started discussing tentative sittings on when the Presidents' Speech should be discussed in parliament. The Opposition requested for the motion to be presented before the Civil Code Amendment Bill - a request which is being mulled.
The Opposition's whip, David Agius, suggested that a total of six sitting be allocated for the debate - three sittings for each side.
Government's whip Carmelo Abela agreed, adding that even four could be enough.
The Speaker however warned both sides that he would not accept any criticism directed at President George Abela.
"I don't want to limit the discussion and I won't stop any criticism direct at the content on the speech. However, I won't accept any comments that could be disrespectful towards the presidency as a person," Farrugia said, quoting the Parliament's permanent orders.
According to Farrugia, the MPs could not even criticise the President by saying that the speech "had been passed on to the President two days before and he therefore had time to review it".
This however prompted Busuttil to insist that he could not give "any guarantees" that no comments would be made on Abela, given the controversy that sparked by the speech.
"I don't think the Opposition should be limited its liberty at discussing this issue," he said.
Busuttil added that he reserved the right to read the permanent order and not leave it up to the interpretation of the Speaker.