Both party leaders made reasonably good parliamentary speeches on the Budget, but anything they said on the subject was overshadowed by the Prime Minister’s refusal to sack Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia over the shooting incident involving his driver.

Simon Busuttil was focused, hard-hitting and scored points against the government. However, he was better when talking about political responsibility and the behaviour of some of the government ministers than the actual government Budget measures, which are difficult to disapprove of.

When criticising certain aspects of the government’s economic performance, Busuttil was also somewhat vague on how a future Nationalist government would do things differently. The Leader of the Opposition was also unclear whether his party approved of the government’s tapering of benefits and the introduction of in-work benefits.

Busuttil did well in his criticism of the government’s failure to adhere to its power station deadline, which is proving to be increasingly embarrassing for Joseph Muscat’s administration. Furthermore, his notion that honesty and truth will be a central platform of the Nationalist Party’s agenda was also well received.

The Nationalist Party leader excelled in his criticism of various ministers’ behaviour, the fact that government backbench MPs were being given executive roles – and therefore benefitting from thousands of euros in additional salaries.

Muscat, on the other hand, put up a good defence of his government’s Budget and economic record, but chose to ignore many of the political accusations made by the Opposition leader. He talked extensively about issues that most people are concerned with, such as jobs, the cost of living and disposable income, and emphasised that many of the measures introduced in the Budget were aimed at encouraging people to go out and work.

Conscious of possible criticism from his party’s left wing, he defended the government’s clampdown on welfare cheats, explaining that such abuse harmed those who genuinely were in need of social assistance. Muscat also made it clear that his government wanted the entire country to benefit from a growing economy and not just top income earners.

The Prime Minister, however, chose not to reply to much of Busuttil’s criticism of his ministers’ behaviour.

He also defended his appointment of Labour MPs to executive roles by highlighting that his predecessor had appointed his own backbenchers as parliamentary assistants and made only a vague reference to the Mallia incident in which he simply criticised the Opposition for refusing to nominate a judge to head an inquiry.

This is simply not good enough from the Prime Minister. Nor is his insistence that he will wait for the inquiry he has commissioned before reaching any decisions over the issue. The Mallia affair is a political issue. Nothing more, nothing less. No enquiry is required to establish that his position – along with that of his assistant Silvio Scerri – has become untenable.

Indeed, if Mallia truly had regard for the government he forms part of, he would have taken the honourable way out himself. The fact that he has failed to do so says more about obstinacy than it does about integrity and accountability.

Every day that Muscat drags his feet on this issue is an extra day in which public confidence is eroded in the country’s forces of law and order .

It is the primary responsibility of a Prime Minister to ensure that this does not happen – whatever the personal political cost might be. The fact that he is allowing it to happen does not reflect well on him either.

He would do well to recall his words as Opposition leader when he was calling for a minister’s head: “The Prime Minister did not make the responsible choice and call a vote of confidence... to remove uncertainty in the country... the Prime Minister abdicated from his role to remove uncertainty... I shoulder my responsibilities... this is a government with a wait-and-see Prime Minister.”

We have is an institutional crisis on our hands. But, unfortunately, we also have a wait-and-see Prime Minister.