The government was accused of gross irresponsibility over the way it acted before putting up the dockyards for privatisation.

Speaking during the second reading of the Bill implementing Budget measures, opposition spokesman on infrastructure and construction Charles Buhagiar said the closure of the dockyard had cost the government some €900 million, but the yard was not closed at all.

Despite the laying off of workers, the dockyard had taken on new employees and still carried out works. And the government had flaunted the dockyard's privatisation process as if it would create new jobs. But the government was hopefully trying to regain some of those work opportunities that the dockyard had before its closure.

He called on the government to exercise foresight in the construction industry and guide it towards new niches, such as restoration and road-building. Good planning would ensure the opportunities in this industry would be taken up by Maltese rather than foreign workers.

The government had also acted irresponsibly in the privatisation of buses. The government would lose about €187,000 on each low-floor bus, having paid out about €75,000 in subsidies for their purchase and €123,000 to buy it back, only to obtain a meagre €13,000 from the company that would be responsible for the bus services.

Mr Buhagiar warned that farmers would soon face a serious lack of water. He criticised the government for having allowed uncontrolled extraction of water from the aquifer, with the result that underground water had become unusable by farmers due to its high salinity content. The government must encourage farmers to use alternative methods of collecting water, such as the construction of water reservoirs.

Marie Louise Coleiro Preca (PL) said the Bill gave a better picture of the government than that projected by the Budget.

It was shameful that while the Budget had overrun and despite the heavy taxes imposed, the government still wanted to borrow €550 million. Admittedly, other countries had imposed taxes, but they had also introduced packages to stimulate their economies and control unemployment.

Fuel and the utility rates had again gone up. She said she had seen an elderly man's bill for €17,000. Hopefully, this was a mistake. But there were other families who could not make more energy savings, yet nonetheless they could not cope.

The government was acting irresponsibly, and it was only through people's good sense that their situation was not worse.

Dr Coleiro Preca said families who had switched from electric to gas heaters had found themselves back to square one because gas prices had doubled over a few months. There were also the Mepa permit fees that would increase because the government had stopped its subvention.

There were government-induced problems which had been left unaddressed and at the same time, the government was talking of the 15 per cent of people at the risk of poverty. Dr Coleiro Preca said this was a 2008 figure and statistics would show that the number had grown since.

If indicators showed that figures for children and the aged at the risk of poverty had increased, then the global figure had surely increased.

She said Malta was also being watched by the EU for its high debt levels and warned against implementing the EU's advice over social welfare reforms that would see reductions in state aid to the needy. She was against abuse but could not tolerate the length of time to process applications for invalidity pensions.

Dr Coleiro Preca said the long-promised consumer agency was still on paper, in spite of the government's professing its belief in social justice.

The UK Treasury Secretary had said recently that although cutting government spending was important, cutting down on social security was not on the cards. The British government would be laying more emphasis on education, health, defence and security.

The Maltese government must come clean with the people and say what advice it was planning to follow on free health services or otherwise.

It should be ashamed of the way up-and-coming, promising youths were being made to pay for furthering their education, amounting to some six weeks of social services for their families.

What were the results in the education sector in spite of the fact that the government's spending on the sector was among the highest in Europe?

Dr Coleiro Preca said injustice was rife, especially between bona fide SME importers and others who got away without declaring anything because they were well-known to the authorities. What SME schemes were there to boast about if entrepreneurs were being discouraged from taking initiatives?

People were being assaulted with huge arrears in income tax, even though the circumstances in their lives had changed drastically, especially through sickness. What government efficiency!

The government had promised that with the new merger the taxation process would become much more efficient. Did this mean that pensioners who had their minds at rest that everything was in order stood the chance of being asked for arrears too?

The feminisation of poverty, with many women losing their job, should be deeply evaluated, because some of them were single mothers raising families.

The government was adamant about taxing bed-nights at 50c each, because it wanted to recoup part of its subsidy to the tourism industry. It did not seem to mind that tourism would be badly hit, including the loss of jobs, even though it would then need to fork out unemployment benefits, she concluded.

On Tuesday, opposition spokesman on utilities Marlene Pullicino said it was disappointing that the government did not heed recommendations by MPs.

The Budget estimates were only a skeleton plan. Major measures which had a profound negative effect on families were adopted either before or soon after the Budget.

Dr Pullicino advocated that before presenting the Budget, the government should give an account of what it had implemented from the previous Budget. It should heed what the opposition and the constituted bodies had to say on measures affecting families, industry and other services.

The government should acknowledge its mistakes and take corrective action.

Dr Pullicino said that in the 2008 Budget, the government had projected a deficit of £200 million but ended up with €233 million. Similarly, in 2009, the budget deficit, estimated at €99 million, had amounted to €258 million at the end of the year.

The government had projected that the 2010 Budget would leave a surplus, but now it has become known that the country would have to wait until 2012 to bring the budget deficit under the three per cent mark. If the government had been a private company it would have gone bankrupt and dissolved already, she said.

Taxpayers expected to get value for money through quality services. The government had to be accountable. Despite annual increases in the tourism budget, the government had failed to attract new markets or strengthen current ones.

Dr Pullicino said the government was managing by crisis and did not have a long-term strategic plan.

It was not wise for the government to heftily increase the utility tariffs when the economy was stagnant. The energy sector should be given top priority. Malta was still dependant on fossil fuels when it could use solar and wind energy. The government had failed to take the necessary action. The energy grid needed to be upgraded.

The 2015 energy plan had advocated a gas plant to generate electricity. But the government had decided on heavy fuel oil, which would produce hazardous waste and air pollution that were detrimental to people's health. Dr Pullicino said that the toxic waste which was not filtered ended up in the aquifer and contaminated vegetable produce.

What had happened to the recycling of storm water and the water catchment project? she asked, adding that waste water was left to drain into the sea.

Dr Pullicino called on the government to safeguard prison warders because they were overworked and forced to work overtime because of understaffing. She also called for protection of prisoners who were suffering from a lack of proper sanitation, overcrowding and other problems such as drug abuse.

The debate continues on Monday.