'No minors caught drinking alcohol'

How right Anthony Girard was in his letter of November 3 (Minors Surely Drink). I will add on to what he said. Is this not an example of utter incompetence on the part of the government, or is it just giving wrong and deceitful statistics? I quote verbatim what was written in this newspaper at the time: "No minors were caught consuming alcohol."

Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici faced a barrage of supplementary questions after he said that between January and September this year no minors had been caught consuming alcohol. Answering another parliamentary question, he said that over the same period there had been 108 persons under the age of 16 who had been found in entertainment establishments in St Julians and Victoria. The police were taking court action against 62 persons responsible for these establishments.

When asked by various opposition MPs how he could explain the perceived anomaly, Dr Mifsud Bonnici admitted that they were not mutually compatible, and he would talk to the Police Commissioner at the first opportunity.

Seeking to explain why the police could not have done better, he said there used to be discrepancies between the Criminal Code and a number of legal notices in the definition of minors. The situation had been made more workable with the more recent issuing of four legal notices. Asked why nobody seemed to have picked up the anomaly with effective monitoring, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said that meaningful monitoring of the frequent reports should be ongoing.

Who is the minister, with all due respect, trying to fool?

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