Sant insists Gonzi lied on health care

Labour leader Alfred Sant insisted yesterday that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi had lied squarely when he denied that Cabinet had discussed the introduction of fees on health care.

The Prime Minister stuck to his guns again yesterday morning and even asked Dr Sant to apologise, following an urgent libel case he filed against him (against Dr Sant) in connection with the case.

Yet, speaking on his Coach of Change whistle tour in the evening, visiting Naxxar, St Paul's Bay and Mellieħa, the Opposition Leader reiterated his message to supporters: "Gonzi lied and I say it confidently, he's a liar".

He insisted that the Health Ministry report which he revealed on Wednesday not only proved conclusively that Cabinet had discussed the matter but that it agreed in principle with the idea of levying fees on health care.

The news about the document has dominated the campaign since Wednesday, with Dr Gonzi sticking to his position that Cabinet had not discussed the matter and that the report released by Labour had been shot down by a subcommittee for social affairs within Cabinet.

The author of the document, a director within the Health Ministry, issued a sworn statement on Thursday, saying the salient sentence in his report, which says that "the Cabinet has agreed in principle to this concept but fees for Maltese citizens will not be introduced for the moment due to their political underpinnings..." was simply his interpretation.

Dr Sant, however, rebutted that it was obvious civil servants are mandated to develop such documents after Cabinet discusses such issues.

No amount of sworn statements contradict this fact, he said, challenging the Prime Minister to file as many libel suits as he wanted to, because he would still keep insisting on this point because it was the truth.

The grand finale of yesterday's tour finished off with fireworks and quite a few squibs being let off from the Labour Party club - the latter apparently haunting the party campaign aides, who tried to signal to the supporters on the roof not to let them off .