The Labour Party will be taking part in a Parliamentary committee announced by the Prime Minister yesterday to study the black dust problem but it will not be an accomplice in further delaying the issue, leader Joseph Muscat said this morning.
Addressing a news conference in front of the Fgura Primary School, Dr Muscat was reacting to the notice given yesterday evening of a parliamentary motion for the setting up of a parliamentary committee to discuss the source of the 'black dust' seen in several localities, notably Fgura, and report to the House.
The proposal came hours after the Opposition criticised Dr Gonzi for having said in reply to a parliamentary question on Monday that the dust had not reappeared since August last year and Mepa therefore had no samples to conduct further tests.
The claim that the problem had not reappeared was denied by the Labour spokesmen.
Dr Muscat described the Prime Minister’s answer to the parliamentary question as shocking and said that the effect of the problem was felt by parents and children.
No concrete action had been taken about it but Dr Gonzi last night created a Parliamentary Committee to deal with what was, for him a non-existent problem.
The committee, Dr Muscat said, was not appointed because the Prime Minister had a genuine interest in the problem but because he was interested in public opinion, which was completely opposite to his statement when answering the PQ.
“This was a knee-jerk reaction, a quick fix to look as though he was doing something,” Dr Muscat said.
He added that the PL were willing to take part in the committee but not to be an accomplice.
“We do not want to be a smokescreen to continue taking the people for a ride.”
The Prime Minister’s statement, he said, was another certificate of mediocrity, showing that the government did not know how to handle the issue and was passing the buck on to Parliament.
Dr Muscat warned: “We will not be willing to take Mepa’s or Enemalta’s word. We do not have confidence in them. These have been issuing statements on this issue for the past year,” he said.
The party’s environment spokesman Leo Brincat said this was a problem for which the government was responsible and as minister for the environment, the Prime Minister had direct responsibility.
Parliament’s function, Mr Brincat said, was to legislate or scrutinise but not to carry out the government’s duty.
The Prime Minister’s interest was to shift responsibility from the government and himself to Parliament.
Health, Mr Brincat said, required concrete action and this issue had been going on for a long time.
While the Prime Minister said when answering the PQ that the problem had disappeared since August 2009, in the budget for 2010, moved in November 2009, he had submitted an action plan which included studies and monitoring of data. No one knew what has become of these studies.
Fgura mayor Byron Camilleri also spoke at the conference holding up a jar half full of black dust. This, he said, was collected yesterday from two roofs in Fgura.