What Ralph Cassar said (July 23) in reply to Joseph Borg makes interesting reading about Gozo affairs but I would like to make some points that can still give a true and better picture of what was said about problems Gozo faces and the proposed tunnel project.

Investing in Gozo was always on the agenda of the central governments. In fact, investors in Gozo enjoyed special incentives and subsidies to lure industries set up there. There was a time when the Xewkija industrial estate was quite busy employing many Gozitans. Productions with high added value such as electronic equipment and textiles did well by lessening the transport expense through the high price of the finished goods. The cost per ton between Gozo and Malta is double that between Malta and Sicily. Through the changing industrial activities, Gozo has suffered but always focusing on the transport expense.

Suggesting more ferries would result in a big congestion at the departure and arrival points and waiting time would not be shortened while empty ferries are unlikely to generate sustainability. All sorts of transport between the islands have been tried – the hydrofoil, the hoovermarine, the Sa Maison route, the helicopter – but all these were short lived because, apart from their limited capacity, these never appealed to the mass population.

Again, the idea of public transport to reduce the number of cars crossing over to Gozo. Who comes to Gozo for a holiday with his family without a car? How can we ever ignore that the car is a very important element in our lifestyle?

Mr Cassar is blaming the government that the Gozo General Hospital lacks equipment to avoid the need of Gozo patients having to travel to Malta. The Gozo General Hospital has all the necessary emergency equipment but we can never have a hospital to match Mater Dei Hospital to cater for a population of just 30,000 in Gozo.

The economy of Gozo is geared mainly to cater for the flow of tourism from the mainland, both consisting of Maltese nationals and foreign, which has flourished with the ferry service. But the service has constantly caused problems to the commuter in general in terms of waiting time, unnecessary time restrictions and the uncertainty of getting there. We all hear how many are crossing to Gozo and facing such problems, which can end up discouraging potential tourists from deciding to make frequent visits to Gozo and causing increased hardship to the Gozitan commuter.

The link between Malta and Gozo has always offered challenges along the years even if it is amply clear that such link is a lifeline to the Gozitan population. Its livelihood depends on an efficient Malta-Gozo link.

There were various options on how to improve the link service, including having a permanent link between the two islands. However, this was never promoted by political oriented and noisy conservative elements. They may have even banned such a discussion from taking place and have succeeded to quell the will of the silent majority in doing their utmost to meet their needs in the best possible way.

Gozo’s private sector has heavily invested in services for the tourism industry, whether in catering, accommodation, leisure, retail, or otherwise, to the extent that the Gozo private sector is bigger than the public sector. So its services are vast enough and organised to meet all the demands and challenges as it has always done in the peak periods.

The tunnel project will give Gozo a new way of life in terms of its future existence. In Gozo, the emerging generations will be relieved to know they will have free passage to the other end (not money-wise). This will result in peace of mind, no time restrictions, more security, fewer problems when deciding to leave Gozo, more self confidence in the future and an end to isolation.

This would be an improvement that many have been waiting for in view of the fact that the only access to Gozo is by boat, the same sort of transport as that used by the Romans more than 1,700 years ago. Of course, sea transport nowadays is done in a more refined way but it still remains the same method.