In a fleeting reference to the shooting incident involving a minister’s driver, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday insisted he would protect no one.

Dedicating just five minutes from a two-hour Budget reaction speech, he reiterated his disgust at what happened and in the same breath accused the Opposition of “building a narrative that did not exist” when it claimed a cover-up.

Dr Muscat criticised Opposition leader Simon Busuttil for refusing to nominate a person of trust to an inquiry board set up to look into claims the Home Affairs Ministry attempted a cover-up.

The driver of minister Manuel Mallia last week shot at and hit the car of a Briton after an accident.

On Monday, Dr Busuttil dedicated a significant part of his speech to the incident conveying the popular mood of “anger and disgust”, accusing the Prime Minister of being weak in front of abuse by not removing Dr Mallia.

Last night, Dr Busuttil announced the Opposition was to move a no-confidence motion in the minister.

But while repeatedly admitting his government was not perfect, Dr Muscat in his speech defended his minister, saying the incident was unacceptable, and slammed the Opposition for wanting to be “judge and jury”.

“I am disgusted by what happened and cannot accept it, more so when the person involved was a police officer… I want to know who gave wrong information and whether this was done on purpose,” he said.

Dr Muscat criticised Dr Busuttil for rejecting the inquiry into the shooting incident, recalling the Opposition leader had asked for one last year over a less serious incident involving an altercation between Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and a Nationalist Party official.

The Prime Minister used his time to address the Opposition’s criticism that the government had no economic direction and lacked a social conscience.

“The silent majority is optimistic that its quality of life has improved. This is not a perfect government and we do make mistakes but people know we are a government that is working to change things for the better,” a confident Dr Muscat said.

PM: fewer staff retired from public sector jobs

He said the deficit had been cut, the economy had grown, jobs created and unemployment was down. He rebutted the Opposition’s mounting criticism that unemployment was only lower because the government had employed some 4,000 in the public sector.

The Prime Minister said the real increase amounted to 2,700 people, of which 800 were public transport workers temporarily absorbed until a new bus operator was chosen.

He said Dr Busuttil was incorrect to include the replacement of retired workers, which the Opposition assumed amounted to some 2,200. “The truth is that last year only 600 civil servants retired as a result of the retirement age going up to 62.”

Dr Muscat said nearly 1,000 of the new jobs in the public sector were nurses, teachers, learning support assistants and doctors.

On health, he announced the signing of a heads of agreement with a private company for the distribution of free medicines on a door-to-door basis in two localities as a pilot project.

We won’t protect the dishonest because abuse hurts beneficiaries whom we are helping

Expressing shock at what he described as the Opposition leader’s belittling of the fact that weak concrete had been discovered at Mater Dei Hospital, Dr Muscat said similar defects were found in a group of government-built cluster houses in Mtarfa.

“There are tens of families living in these buildings and we have decided to act and help them rather than shift the problem as happened in the past,” he said.

In an ideological pitch, Dr Muscat said his government espoused modern social democratic credentials. “Call it the Third Way but we believe in encouraging economic growth that creates wealth that can then be redistributed justly.”

He defended the drive to tackle benefit abuse, accusing Dr Busuttil of being “dishonest” when claiming the government labelled the most vulnerable as cheats.

“Go back to the Budget speech and read it well… we called thieves those who abuse. We will not protect the dishonest because abuse hurts the genuine beneficiaries whom we are helping,” he said.

Dr Muscat said it was rich for the Opposition leader to speak of moral authority when he had taken more than €1 million in consultancy fees under the previous administration, while claiming that he earned less than the minimum wage.

The Prime Minister also expressed disappointment Dr Busuttil had said nothing about the Budget proposal to seek payment from companies that failed to employ disabled people as required by law. The government wanted a bipartisan approach to the matter, he added.

kurt.sansone@timesofmalta.com