The Opposition is insisting on an open debate in Parliament to determine the facts and apportion responsibility for the weak concrete structures at Mater Dei Hospital.

Nationalist Party health spokesman Claudio Grech reiterated the call yesterday after the government refused to have the Parliamentary Committee for Health debate the matter urgently. It prefers the debate to take place once the government-appointed inquiry is concluded.

Addressing a news conference at the party headquarters in Pietà, Mr Grech said the worst-case scenario would be that of leaving people in the dark about the safety of the structure as the inquiry dragged on for months.

He asked whether the probe was being carried out under the Inquiries Act, where people who refused to testify would be liable to a fine or to imprisonment for up to three months.

Referring to the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, Mr Grech said he was satisfied with the measures taken by the government to guard against the virus reaching Malta. He said that even though such a possibility was remote, the government was bound to protect those mostly at risk, such as army personnel, healthcare workers and immigration officers.