Parliamentary Secretary Franco Mercieca is the only member of the Cabinet who has been given special permission to continue exercising his profession, despite the provisions of the Code of Ethics, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning.

Speaking to the press after a visit to St Aloysius' College, Dr Muscat said his Government believed in "common sense" and he saw nothing wrong with allowing Mr Mercieca to continue working in the interests of patients.

Mr Mercieca, an ophthalmic surgeon, has been allowed to continue to perform operations.

"Franco Mercieca has specialisations that few people in our country have and I felt he should be given permission to carry out some limited work so that patients do not suffer... At least until there are enough people specialised in this area," Dr Muscat said, stressing that Mr Mercieca was not a lawyer or an architect of which there is a large number.

Asked whether the code of ethics was not important to him, Dr Muscat pointed out that in his first Cabinet meeting, he called for the code to be updated for today's needs.

The Times reported this morning that Parliamentary Secretary Mercieca has been granted “a limited waiver” by the Prime Minister to work as an ophthalmic surgeon.

Mr Mercieca yesterday admitted that he was still seeing patients after being appointed to Cabinet.

He defended his actions, saying he was the only ophthalmic surgeon specialising in cornea and anterior segment surgery.

“I was given a very limited waiver by the Office of the Prime Minister to follow up cases where I am the sole medical practitioner in the field and dedicate a few hours a week to safeguard the interests of these patients,” Mr Mercieca said.

Mr Mercieca said he was not being paid for medical services rendered in the public hospital but received remuneration for private practice.

Full story in The Times.