Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco yesterday promised to investigate two new cases of odours at Hexagon House, Marsa, which had forced the sending home a number of employees yesterday.

Opposition MP Leo Brincat pointed out that another case had occurred last week. When this had last happened a few months ago the Prime Minister had said the issue would be addressed. It had also been said that the ITC permit for neighbouring Waste Oil Ltd, which was suspected of causing the fumes, had been strengthened. Mr Brincat asked if any monitoring of the situation had been done since then, if any efforts had been made to identify any operational problems, and what action had been taken with regard to Waste Oil.

If the Waste Oil issue had not really or adequately been addressed, he wondered aloud what would happen when the power station extension would need to be monitored. Answering Mr Brincat’s original parliamentary question on the monitoring of particulate matter and other air quality data by Mepa, Dr de Marco said the report for 2009 should have been ready by the end of last month. He promised to verify why a PQ effectively answered last November had come up before the House yesterday.

He also said that as soon as he had been made responsible for Mepa, he had requested the recruitment of 45 new staff to join about 100 people already involved in the monitoring of air quality.