An agreement on pairing is unlikely at this stage, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said this morning.

Speaking on the radio programme Ghandi x’Nghid on Radju Malta, Dr Muscat described the government’s offer for the Speaker of the House of Representatives to come for the Labour benches as a red herring.

The offer, he said, had only been made for the Nationalist Party to gain a majority of two instead of one. A wider debate, Dr Muscat said, was needed in the select committee but the government was not willing to take certain steps.

A debate, Dr Muscat said, was also needed on other major issues such as the electoral law, the government’s powers prior to the elections, party financing and a law on transparency in party financing. This debate should start and be concluded this year.

On the proposed reform to the Rent Laws, Dr Muscat said that while the government was asking the right questions, it was giving the wrong answers.

Labour agreed that owners were suffering an injustice and this situation had to change but not to the detriment of the weak. This was where the role of the state had to come in.

On the water and electricity bills the Opposition leader said he could never agree with the way these been worked out. The new bills carried a surcharge equivalent to 185 per cent when last December - with price of oil being what it was but also including a consideration for the hedging element, the surcharge should have been 35 per cent.

The government, he said, wanted this money to make good for its inefficiencies and meet its targets. Its game was clear, it wanted to collect as much as it could now so that it would be able to play a bit with the rates before the June EP elections.

But the government was not keeping its promises and was being anti-social. Last October it had said that rates would be revised every six months or every time there is a + or - 15 per cent change in the price of oil. There had been this change and the government should have reduced the rates.

When asked about the shipyards, Dr Muscat said that the opposition was being responsible, it had a lot of questions and it expected answers but although it would be easy for it to embark on a speculation campaign this could be detrimental to workers. However, the government was duty bound to tell the opposition what was going on.

The Opposition leader also expressed his disappointment at how health care was developing. The situation was that if one did not have money to go private, one died waiting, he said.

It was good that Herceptin was being given free of charge but much more was required. Everyone, whether rich or poor, should have the same chances of survival. Private care should be an option but the basic should be enough to save lives.

On the election of the President, Dr Muscat said that the country needed a President who enjoyed the biggest possible consensus. For this, courageous decisions were needed by both the government and the opposition. He was willing to take these decisions, Dr Muscat said.

He also touched on the forthcoming EP elections saying these were very difficult for the party, part of a voyage that could go both ways.

The PL, he said, would be in a mental, cultural battle. People had to be convinced and the elections would be coming in the midst of this process.

While it was easy for the PN to mobilise its people, it was a very difficult journey for the PL.

“For us it will be the beginning of a process, whatever the result, which should lead us to the general election... Our journey will end at the general elections and this is my aim. We will then embark on the country's project. I will not stake everything for the EP elections,” Dr Muscat said.