Labour Party to fund charity cases with renounced salaries

During the last days, Labour Leader Joseph Muscat has claimed that he will not personally accept the salary increase and he will leave it up to his MPs to decide on their own according to their conscience.

The Labour Party has now come to the decision to open a fund to help families and organisations in need.

Judge Philip Sciberras has also accepted to manage the fund, which will aid charity institutions such as Dar tal-Providenza and Dar Nazareth.

Muscat has more than once claimed that the increase at this time was not justifiable, branding it as an “insult to the Maltese families”. Whilst he has not denied that MPs’ salaries are inadequate, Muscat said the timing came at a time where “Maltese families are asked to make sacrifices”.

As Muscat continues to stand by his claim that nothing had been said in Parliament about the decisions taken by the Cabinet, the Nationalist Party denies it.

“It is not acceptable for the Opposition to to know about this through parliamentary questions,” Muscat had said.

In a reply, the PN claimed that Labour MPs knew about the revision of MPs’ salaries and honoraria as talks had been going on between the government and the Opposition.

In the statement, the PN said that Opposition whip Joe Mizzi had met with Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, in which an agreement had been reached. The PN goes on to state that Mizzi also wanted MPs to continue get free envelopes and mail.

The Nationalist Party said Muscat did not reveal he had an income of €51,323 a year, including a €7,000 untaxable car allowance besides free internet and telephone.

The PN’s statement also read that when Muscat was a member of the European Parliament, he had voted in favour of his salary to increase from €1,295 to €7,000 a month.