Despite the hefty raise given to ministers and parliamentary secretaries, the Cabinet is saving the country €1.5 million a year since it has been reduced in size during this legislature, the Prime Minister said yesterday.
Lawrence Gonzi was countering criticism, even from within his own party, that the raise for ministers was ill-timed, arguing that the decision to grant it was paired with that of downsizing the Cabinet after the 2008 election.
“Whoever says the timing wasn’t right is mistaken. I took this decision two and a half years ago when I decided to have a smaller Cabinet, which I then went on to shrink further (when John Dalli was not replaced after he left to become European Commissioner) and the remaining ministers shouldered more burdens,” Dr Gonzi said.
“Recently, someone made a calculation which shows that when you consider the reduction in the number of ministers and you take into account the staff complement ministers would have, the decision taken at the beginning of this term is saving the country €2.5 million a year.”
The raise, which basically allows ministers to receive their MP’s honorarium (which itself has been increased by €7,600 to a little more than €26,000 yearly) while keeping the salary from their executive office, is estimated to cost taxpayers €1 million more every year, which means that public coffers are still €1.5 million better off with a smaller, better paid Cabinet.
“This means that over a term we would have saved up to €6 million with this decision,” Dr Gonzi said.
The Prime Minister also defended the principle, against criticism by Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat, of giving the ministers two pays.
Dr Gonzi drew a parallel with Opposition MPs who work for the government, as medical consultants for instance, pointing out that these too kept both their salary and their honorarium.
The Labour party has been among the most vocal critics of the raise, with its leader becoming the first to refuse his own as he too, like ministers, was allowed, for the first time, to keep his MP’s honorarium as well as his salary as Opposition Leader.
However, Labour’s has not been a lone voice. Besides scores of comments on news sites and discussion forums, Nationalist backbencher Jean-Pierre Farrugia, a doctor, declared he would be diverting the raise into causes he believes in, while the party’s former treasurer Peter Darmanin was openly critical of the move.
During the same interview, Dr Gonzi said future governments would be able to solve or improve things such as the pensions system if they didn’t have a weekly headache related to oil prices and energy.
He said the government had managed to keep energy prices stable by buying the stocks for 2010 and 2011 beforehand, when the price was still $80 a barrel, while fuel prices changed monthly.
It was unfair to compare Malta to major European countries that had greater access to electricity and more natural resources. The interconnector between Malta and Sicily, he said, would provide a framework for cheaper electricity to be bought. Currently, Malta’s electricity depended on oil which was transported by sea, which added an extra cost.
He also ruled out any widespread subsidies, saying that subsidies had to reach those who really needed them, not people who were already rather well-off.
At the top of his agenda, the Prime Minister said, was the restructuring of Air Malta. There was a “constructive will to go in a direction which makes sense, isn’t temporary and which puts the
airline on a solid foundation” for the years to come.
Mentioning the recent drop in unemployment, Dr Gonzi said there was more behind the additional 700 people now in employment, as this meant the economy had actually absorbed all the graduates, the 1,300 ex-dockyard workers and those who had lost their jobs.