The deputy leader of the opposition, Mario de Marco, this afternoon called for debate on MPs’ pay and on whether MPs should work full time, although he said he personally had reservations about the idea.

Dr de Marco was speaking in Parliament during the Budget debate on the allocations to the Office of Deputy Prime Minister Louis Grech, who is also Leader of the House.

He said both sides of the House had ended up insulting each other on MPs' pay in a situation where the only consequence would be further erosion of the people's confidence and respect for politicians and the institution of Parliament.

Clearly, the time had come to calmly discuss MPs' pay. He was not saying that pay should be raised, but the issue should be discussed.

The government had committed itself not to raise MPs' pay, but then it amended the law to put MPs on various government boards, effectively raising their pay that way while confusing the roles of backbench MPs as legislators and members of the executive. If MPs' pay was to be raised, it should not be raised that way.

Turning to whether Malta should have full time MPs, he said there was no doubt that the workload of MPs had increased and he acknowledged that some people felt the time had come for MPs to work full time.

There was also, however, a middle way, as adopted in Italy, where MPs were given the option of being full-time or part-time, and being paid accordingly.

Giving his personal views, Dr de Marco said he did not feel MPs should be full time, and thus dependant on politics for their livelihood.

It was important that MPs had a profession or other employment giving them a source of income which was separate from parliament's.

There was nothing better than being independent of politics while being active within in. That gave one freedom of thought and freedom of action.

There was nothing worse that having a person ending up in politics not to do something for the country, but to do something for his own employment.

Concluding, Dr de Marco also drew comparisons between the logistical support given to MEPs and national MPs. MEPs, he observed, were able to form teams of researchers who supported them in their work.

The national MPs had nothing of this sort.

As a first step, he suggested that parliament should have a pool of researchers who would be available to help all MPs.

With Malta about to have a new Chamber of Parliament designed by one of the world's top architects, action needed to be taken to ensure that the institution also attracted the best people to serve as its Members, he said.