The Government will be waiting for proposals from a consultative body on fireworks before moving to implement basic recommendations to improve safety that were made last December.

The Explosives Committee was tasked with drawing up detailed legislative proposals

“The Government will await the policy and legislative proposals forthcoming from the Explosives Committee before moving on to implementation stage,” a spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister – which is now responsible for fireworks – said.

He was referring to the implementation of recommendations by an authoritative commission, appointed to make a comprehensive review of the industry’s practices. It followed the September 2010 explosion at the Farrugia Brothers factory in Għarb, which killed six people and practically wiped out an entire family.

The commission report found that the local industry still used a number of dangerous chemical mixtures that were banned abroad because they are too volatile. The commission was chaired by chemistry professor Alfred Vella.

Following yet another tragedy on Sunday, in which four people died in an explosion at the Qalb ta’ Gesù factory – only 500 metres away from the Farrugia Brothers factory – Prof. Vella and Prof. Victor Axiaq, a commission member, called for certain key recommendations, particularly the ban of such dangerous mixtures, to be urgently implemented.

However, when asked if the Government would consider introducing such a ban immediately, given Sunday’s tragedy, the Office of the Prime Minister insisted it would follow the procedure it had set out late last year.

The spokesman pointed out that in February a task force was set up to oversee a consultation process with stakeholders on the recommendations of the Vella report.

That process was concluded a month later and proposed measures were in turn referred on to the Explosives Committee, the regulatory body in the field, which was tasked with drawing up “detailed legislative proposals to implement the main recommendations”.

That process is still ongoing six months after the consultation was concluded.

The Times also asked the Labour Party if it supported the idea of an urgent ban on dangerous chemical mixtures.

It said: “We are willing to agree with any possible means which renders the art of pyrotechnics safer, including the restriction of certain chemical mixtures.”

But the party also called for an urgent conference that would debate and “decide” on the recommendations of the Vella report; a suggestion that had originally been made by the former Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici, who was piloting the reform in the area before he resigned in May.

Labour also declared itself averse to the idea of a moratorium and outright bans, going against a suggestion by its own Gozitan MP Anton Refalo who on Monday said perhaps a ban on manufacturing should be considered.

“Moratoriums and outright bans might be popular but would only lead to illegal manufacturing. Strict surveillance and tight regulations should be in place. Labour leader Joseph Muscat has already put forward a number of proposals in an article he penned following the Gozo tragedy two years back,” the spokesman said.

In that article Dr Muscat, whose father is an enthusiast and imports chemicals used for fireworks, called for tighter regulation and made detailed recommendations.

mmicallef@timesofmalta.com