A lot of unanswered questions on sports village, Muscat says

The government could say it was not forking out a penny for the White Rocks sports village when it was giving at least €200 million worth of prime real estate to a foreign company, Labour leader Joseph Muscat charged yesterday.

He quoted former Nationalist minister and architect Michael Falzon who estimated that the 300 residential units mentioned in the project would "easily" rake in a profit of €170 million.

He said there were many questions that had to be answered on this project but the Prime Minister did not accept the opposition's request to make a formal presentation on the project in Parliament. Therefore, the questions had to be raised in public.

"How was this consortium chosen? Was there a public call? Did any others apply? Were any others approached? Who represented the government in the negotiations? Who represented the consortium? Will the Maltese have free access to the sports village or will we have to pay," he asked.

Pointing out that land was an important and limited resource for Malta, Dr Muscat asked whether the Corporate Village proposed for Mrieħel was part of a larger strategy.

He wondered why limited space in industrial estates should be taken up by "offices and restaurants" instead of factories, which were under constant pressure to leave residential areas.

Turning to another hot topic, Dr Muscat said that, while it was important to cost the impact to businesses of extending maternity leave or introducing paternity leave, there was also a cost in not implementing such measures that had to be considered. In the long term, the EU's controversial proposals would benefit Malta, as long as it was on a level playing field with the rest of the EU, he said.

He said the "doom and gloom" reactions of how much these changes would cost were the same as those in the past with regard to the introduction of pensions and minimum wage but time proved their importance.

The Labour Party, he said, was proud of its belief in sustainable social services.

Speaking about other issues, including medicine prices, mismanagement in the eco-contribution regulations and the lack of proper planning for a cancer hospital, Dr Muscat said the government was "managing by crisis".

The Nationalist Party said in reply that, while the government sought investment to generate jobs and economic activity, Labour continued to engage in destructive politics.

The PN complained about Dr Muscat's negativity regarding two €200 million private investments (the sports village and the Corporate Village), which, it said, showed lack of vision in terms of employment.