History of Parliament to be written

Speaker Anton Tabone yesterday used the Sette Giugno commemoration ceremony to announce that the history of parliament was being written, and would hopefully be published before the end of the year.

The writer is Prof. Godfrey Pirotta, who is being assisted by the Department of Information.

The ceremony, held at St George's Square, Valletta, marks the 1919 bread riots when three Maltese and a Gozitan - Manwel Attard, Karmnu Abela, Guzè Bajada and Wenzu Dyer - lost their lives.

Mr Tabone said the book would be recounting how the historical changes that took place in Malta changed the institution of parliament.

The book was intended to pay tribute to Maltese personalities who had worked to establish the Maltese parliament as an effective institution in the administration of the country.

Mr Tabone also spoke about present developments at the House of Representatives, saying that the digital system used to record parliamentary committee sittings was being further developed.

Internet access was also being beefed up, while a new facility was being provided that enabled secretaries and whips to contact MPs at their office in parliament through the short messaging service on their mobile phones.

And as from this month, the public would be able to communicate with a parliamentary group via a generic e-mail address, apart from the personal e-mail addresses that already existed. The account would be administered by the secretariat or respective whip.

Mr Tabone said that former President Ugo Mifsud Bonnici's proposals for the revision of the standing orders had been passed on to both sides of parliament for consideration, and he hoped that this work would be concluded to the satisfaction of all.

The Speaker said that until the end of May, 747 parliamentary sittings had been held in this legislature.

The House Business Committee and the Social Affairs Committee had each met 52 times, the Public Accounts Committee 80 times, the Foreign Affairs Committee 37 times, the Committee for the Consideration of Bills 145 times and the Privileges Committee, which met for the first time last year, six times. More than 33,900 parliamentary questions were put.

He said that offices at the palace which were formerly occupied by the European Union Directorate were being refurbished and one of the halls was to be converted to be used for committee meetings.

But there had to be easier access to the chamber and parliamentary offices, he said. Stairs were needed and an application had already been submitted to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.

Mr Tabone said that this year was the second centenary of the drawing up of the Bill of Rights of the Maltese, which had been the first step towards having a constitution.

He had called for this occasion to be celebrated and the National Festivities Committee had drawn up several activities to mark the event, including a television documentary to be shown on PBS on June 15 and a musico-literary event to be organised together with the university at San Anton Gardens on Tuesday.