Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday he was hoping for a “unanimous decision” over the revision of the MPs’ honorarium, which is due to be discussed soon in the House Business Committee.
Speaking at a party activity in Għaxaq, Dr Gonzi said: “I hope there will be a unanimous decision on what has to be done and the decisions we have to take”.
One of these decisions, the Prime Minister said, was the revocation of the complimentary Air Malta flights enjoyed by MPs, as the airline could not afford to give such benefits in its current financial situation.
The main idea behind the revision of the honorarium, Dr Gonzi said, was that he wanted “all MPs to be treated equally”.
“The Labour party has MPs who receive their honorarium alongside a government salary. This wasn’t always the case... I introduced this, and no one came out decrying the fact that they were earning an extra €600 a week – because if that’s what we got, that’s what they got,” the Prime Minister said.
He then went on to say that it wasn’t true that the increase amounted to €600: “It was never true, the honorarium as calculated today, which is 50 per cent of pay scale one of a government employee, amounts to around €350 – the €600 figure is yet another invention,” the Prime Minister said.
On Wednesday, Cabinet decided to refund an increase in the parliamentary honorarium received by ministers and parliamentary secretaries since 2008, which amounted to 70 not 50 per cent of the civil service’s pay scale one.
In fact, the raise, as confirmed by a PN statement issued on Wednesday correcting a Labour Party statement, had brought the honorarium up to €515 weekly and it is now back down to €367.
Dr Gonzi also held his ground on whether the Labour Party knew of the raise or not, saying that in a Parliamentary Welfare Committee meeting on July 9, 2009, a document signed by former MPs Lino Debono (Labour) and John Rizzo Naudi (PN) on behalf of the association of ex-parliamentarians was asking for the increase given to ministers and parliamentary secretaries to be extended to former ministers and parliamentary secretaries. The request, which Dr Gonzi says was seen by himself, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Opposition Leader and the whips from both sides, requested “that the (honoraria) increase that was given to ministers and parliamentary secretaries be extended and reflected in an increase in the pensions of former ministers and parliamentary secretaries”.
“So not only did they know what we were getting, but they wanted more!” Dr Gonzi said.
He also said the country had weathered the crisis well, and testimony to this was the dropping of European Commission procedures against the country for having an excessive deficit.
Also speaking at the meeting was parliamentary assistant Charlo’ Bonnici, who said that only the PN had the strength to carry out major reforms, one of them being the dockyards, “from which we never saw a cent”.
In her address, education and employment minister Dolores Cristina spoke of the educational reform, saying that while she understood the fears and the reservations some might feel about it , “we shouldn’t let these fears stop us from a reform which will lead to happier and better students who will then go on to study at post-secondary level”.