A white paper on party financing is being published tomorrow, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning.

Replying to questions by party delegates at the PL’s headquarters, Dr Muscat said the publication of this white paper was part of a major reform to transform Malta into a truly European country with a European structure.

The country, he said, could not continue to be singled out as one without party financing rules.

“We need strict rules for parties and candidates because we have to put people's minds at rest that there are no obligations to anyone. Donations have to be regulated and this will give a transparent basis to local politics,” he said.

Dr Muscat also said that illegal migration was to stay top of his government’s agenda. The previous government had approached the problem with a sense of inferiority but this government had a different attitude.

“We convinced more than half the EU countries to help us,” he said.

On childcare, Dr Muscat said that the government would be issuing a public tender for the provision of free childcare in the coming days.

The Prime Minister was also asked about problems in the health sector and hoped the government would soon be in a position to announce long term plans for the sector.

He said that it was a fact that Mater Dei was too small and bed demand increased by about 100 each year.

The government was working on primary healthcare so that only people who needed to go to hospital went to there. All possibilities were being examined and, at the moment, issues which had been inherited were being addressed.

He said that abuses identified in the John Dalli report had been passed on the police for investigation.

On unemployment, Dr Muscat said that the government had created 5,000 jobs in its first nine months, most of them with private industry. The previous government, he said, had employed six people a day with the public sector between November and the March election.

Dr Muscat noted that half the jobs created were taken up by foreigners, some because they were jobs the Maltese did not want and others because the Maltese lacked the necessary qualifications for. This was why the government was pressing on the educational aspect.

On co-education, he said that this would make Malta a truly European country. The government was committed to consult teachers and a pilot project which would see all Year 4 students getting a tablet would be initiated in the next scholastic year.

Consultation was underway and several systems were being considered. There was software which, for example, switched tablets off automatically at 8.15pm to prevent them from being used as a toy. Other software controlled the apps that could be downloaded. The government was also looking into which workbooks can be downloaded on tablets, without doing away with physical books.

On the citizenship scheme, Dr Muscat said this was being opposed by the PN not on a point of principle but because it was scared that the programme would bring €1 billion to Malta, helping the country economic growth that was usually achieved in 15 years.

“It is a programme which will ensure that our education and health system can be retained and improved, to help people with social housing, to create new programmes and upgrade our road network. “

He said that he would be meeting the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development on Tuesday to listen to ideas on how money from the scheme could best be utilised.

He appealed to the Opposition leader to acknowledge what the social partners and people within his party wanted and withdraw the parliamentary motion and court protest.

But if he did not, it would not make any difference as investors would still believe the government, the European Commission and experts since Malta’s was the only programme in Europe which had the approval of the European Commission.

On public transport, Dr Muscat said that the government was being practical. Instead of paying consultants to come up with routes which did not make sense, as the previous government had done, it consulted councils who gave their advice free of charge.