Nationalist MP calls for a more proactive fireworks legislation

Nationalist MP Edwin Vassallo yesterday called on Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici to go back to the drawing board, consult all interested persons manufacturing fireworks and come up with a more proactive legislation.

Speaking in Parliament during the debate in second reading on the Bill amending the Explosives Ordinance, Mr Vassallo said the Bill was not proactive enough to eliminate unknown disasters. It was creating a deterrent through fear, which was not enough and this could be due to lack of consultation with the people who were in the know.

The minister and the Police Commissioner should have a hands-on approach of what was happening in the fireworks manufacturing sector to be able to read the signs of the times and stop tragedies from taking place.

The legislation was moved by a passive mentality because it was only the result of the Naxxar tragedy which claimed two lives. If this had not happened, no one would have thought it could have been possible. The incident had shocked the people in general; not so the people who worked in pyrotechnics.

Mr Vassallo suggested legislation which regulated solely pyrotechnics. Explosives should be regulated by a different Act since the two were of a completely different nature.

The Bill should also cover examinations people sit for to obtain a licence. Not holding such examinations regularly encouraged enthusiasts to go to firework factories to work without a licence.

The legislation should also go into the location and the building of firework factories. It should spell out the responsibilities of the different licence holders (A,B,C) and create an equation of what could be done when no holders of one particular licence was not present during the manufacture of fireworks. Certain work by particular licence holders, for example, should be done at a time when only similar licence holders were present at the factory. This would not be a popular proposal but it would prevent tragedies.

Mr Vassallo proposed the setting-up of an advisory board to hold meetings with licence A holders to mitigate any issues that might crop up between those holding licences of a different category. Most often, real explosions followed internal ones between the members, hew said.

The board, which should be mainly made up of people involved in pyrotechnics, would meet the minister regularly for the latter to have a hands-on approach and be able to "smell the explosion on the discussion table".

The Bill should enable the minister to know the amount of fireworks being let off during village feasts. When quantity started to overcome quality, the minister should start getting worried. Mr Vassallo stressed that the minister had to regulate the festa fervour and not disasters after they happened.

On a point of order, Minister Mifsud Bonnici said he had met the licence holders several times and the Bill was only a part of a series of measures to be taken in this direction. It was only increasing fines for those who, illegally, did not manufacture fireworks in factories.

Nationalist MP Ċensu Galea said that traditionally one could not organise a religious feast without fireworks displays. Controversies arise as inconveniences are caused when main thoroughfares are closed for the letting off of petards. Discussion is more incensed when tragedies strike with both sides taking extremes. During the past 10 years, 31 people lost their lives in fireworks explosions.

He called on the government to decide without further delay if firework factories, which have ended up surrounded by residences, were to be relocated. Mr Galea said that this was one of the major problems that such factories were facing, even if the surrounding residential property was built more than 180 metres away, according to law.

Mr Galea said that, as an architect, he agreed that there should be changes in the way fireworks factories are planned but caution should be exercised so as not to cause more harm than good. At present there were five planning applications before Mepa for new factories or for alterations to existing ones.

He emphasised that the government did not want to kill the fireworks manufacturing industry.

It was moving these amendments to see that the fireworks are manufactured under controlled conditions.

Local factories had won international competitions showing that quality in the manufacturing was not lacking.

It should be noted that the latest tragedy did not happen at a fireworks factory but in the midst of an inhabited area where the fireworks were stored. Later, a number of persons were found to have illegally stored fireworks in various localities.

Concluding, Mr Galea said that those manufacturing fireworks should continue to please the many who attend local feasts but not at the expense of their life, or the life of others.

Labour MP José Herrera said the opposition agreed with the amendments, which aimed to improve the control of the manufacture of explosives. In recent years, Malta had seen a number of tragedies in this sector which underlined the need for these changes. There was also the need for sufficient deterrents.

This Bill proposed new legislative structures and gave the court the power not only to sentence but also to award compensation to the victims. In Malta, he said, some things were deeply rooted in tradition. While not everybody liked feasts and fireworks, one had to appreciate other peoples' passions and the sense of community that these feasts brought with them.

Primarily, he said, many of these amendments dealt with introducing heavier penalties, of up to €25,000 and prison sentences of up to five years, quite a change from the previous six-month sentence. The amendments were a necessity.

In some cases, due to negligence on behalf of the person manufacturing the fireworks, innocent people suffered and this was unacceptable. It was inevitable that the government increased penalties and it had the full support of the opposition. However, one noted some discrepancies, such as the penalty when an incident resulted in death, which carried only a four-year prison sentence. On the other hand, he said, when explosives were imported illegally, the sentence was up to five years' imprisonment.

Dr Herrera said that he was against the confiscation of a warehouse where explosives were manufactured, especially if this place did not belong to the manufacturer. Normally, when an object used in a crime partly belonged to third parties, they should not have to suffer as a result.

When explosives were manufactured in a property which was consequently sold, this Bill allowed for the confiscation of this property, even up to a year later. He understood the reasoning behind this but felt that some changes had to be made, so that the new buyer would not suffer unnecessarily.

Dr Herrera said the Bill needed some fine tuning during the committee stage.

Michael Farrugia (MLP) said fireworks were part of the Maltese tradition and therefore had to be protected since few celebrated religious feasts in the manner of the Maltese people. When it came to fireworks people were in favour and others were against. However, he said he was sure that it was unanimous that this Bill was a step forward in curbing abuse.

It was doubtless that the Naxxar case had pushed this issue forward. It was unrealistic for one to think that the problem would be alleviated because of legislation. Enforcement had to be taken seriously, he said.

Many of those who broke the law were well aware of its loopholes, and therefore one had to find solutions for every eventuality.

Dr Farrugia said the government had to look into some issues of illegal storage, manufacture and sale of explosives, as well as the quality of explosive materials.

As Mr Vassallo had said, in some cases the benefactor was more interested in the quantity of explosives, than the quality. If fireworks manufacturers took short cuts, they would be endangering fellow workers. The government had to be vigilant on such cases.

He said that it made no sense to issue permits to build plots in the vicinity of legal firework factories. Referring to the pending applications for firework factories, he said that one had to see how many legal factories Malta could hold.

Dr Farrugia said that those who had suffered losses, both physical and psychological, in the Naxxar explosion had not been given enough compensation. They had barely been given enough to cover the rent. The value of their property had increased since they had insured it, and consequently had to fork out own funds to buy a new house.

He questioned whether the government was doing anything about this and whether Mepa was doing anything to speed up the process to get them back into their own homes. These families had suffered and consequently become dependent on charity. This should not be the case. The government should help them.

Nationalist MP Stephen Spiteri said that fireworks were a manifestation of dominance over rivals, usually coming from the same town or village. Maltese enthusiasts were very capable but, unfortunately, lives were being lost in the process.

One also had to consider the impact of fireworks on the environment, air quality, inconvenience to neighbours and the effect on animals.

He said he agreed with the proposals in a report compiled last year by the Commission for Pyrotechnics which, among others, called for stricter criteria for the issue of licences, obligatory educational courses and insurance to protect third party interests.

The tougher fines being proposed in the Bill were justified as was the right being given to the Police Commissioner to close a factory for a period if he deemed it necessary.

Dr Spiteri said the Bill was addressing the public's genuine call for a solution to the fireworks problem, especially the prevention of unnecessary tragedies.