Rebuild the opera house
I read the statement made by the Prime Minister with regard to the City Gate project. I cannot understand why the government is trying to be elusive with regard to the opera house site. During the past four legislatures his party had promised the...
I read the statement made by the Prime Minister with regard to the City Gate project. I cannot understand why the government is trying to be elusive with regard to the opera house site. During the past four legislatures his party had promised the nation to erect and inaugurate the opera house by the year 1999.
The opposition has never given the opera house any shade of light. To add insult to injury, shadow minister Charles Buhagiar recently stated that if his party were in office, this project would have been dealt with and finished. This is another illusion of the Labour Party.
In the case of the opera house the Prime Minister is seeking consideration of running costs; he is asking: could the country afford another theatre, what would be the impact on the Manoel Theatre and the Mediterranean Conference Centre? The former is a very small theatre with 580 seats including the top balcony. It should be regarded as a historical place that can eventually make a good turnover as a tourist site. Management costs are to be reduced to proper levels to start with.
The latter is just a conference hall, it cannot hold any major representations because the acoustics are bad and stage depth is not adequate. This building has been in big debt since its first day of operation.
The Prime Minister is evading the real fact that his government intends to build a new Parliament on the site as affirmed by Minister Jesmond Mugliett. Richard England has been once again commissioned to prepare another plan for the opera house site to house a new Parliament building. The government has already spent Lm480,000 on a project that has never materialised and surely another six per cent of the Lm20 million in estimated costs from the taxpayer's money would once again go down the drain.
Can the Prime Minister tell us what would be the running costs of the new Parliament and what new jobs would it create? Do we need to build a modern icon for Parliament in such a historical zone?
Valletta is listed as a world heritage city. It should be given back its opera house, erected to its former glory after 62 years of neglect. The people of Malta and Gozo are waiting, Mr Prime Minister.