Parliamentarians should be allowed to decide for themselves whether to become full-time MPs at the expense of renouncing to their career.

This was the view expressed by a number of MPs who were asked by Times of Malta to comment on proposals floated by an independent commission tasked with reviewing MPs’ salaries and conditions.

Appointed in April 2013, the commission had presented its report later that year but its contents were never published by the government.

At present there is no incentive for MPs to focus exclusively on their parliamentary duties

A story in The Malta Independent on Sunday revealed that one of its most radical proposals was the introduction of full-time MPs, with triple the pay – up to €60,000 per year – in return for giving up their career. Should they decline the offer, their honoraria would still increase from €20,000 to €30,000.

The Prime Minister’s salary would increase by 90 per cent to over €94,000, whereas Cabinet members, the Opposition leader and the Speaker would earn about €70,000.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has already ruled out any salary increase in this legislature or the next.

Speaker and former MP Anġlu Farrugia said MPs should be left to decide for themselves which option was best for them.

“At present there is no incentive for MPs to focus exclusively on their parliamentary duties, so the option of becoming full-time should be offered to them as an incentive,” he said.

Long-serving PN MP Ċensu Galea was not very enthusiastic about full-time MPs but did not reject the idea of having an option. “An MP who fails to get re-elected after renouncing his career in order to take his seat on a full-time basis might find it very hard to go back to his profession and start from scratch after all those years,” he said.

This might put young people off from entering politics. “As a result only people approaching retirement, or those who are well off, would afford to venture into politics.”

While accepting in principle that Cabinet members deserved a pay rise, he questioned whether full-time MPs deserved €60,000 a year.

Labour MP Deborah Schembri called for more resources, saying that she had to employ assistants to be able to cope with her role as backbencher. “Though on paper we are part-time MPs, in reality we dedicate most of our time to our parliamentary duties, to the point that I had to relegate my profession of lawyer to the backburner.”

She would probably not take up the offer of becoming a full-time MP as her profession allowed her to remain in touch with the people.

The ones who really deserved to get an increase, she added, were those holding an executive position.

Labour backbencher Anthony Agius Decelis echoed the views expressed by Dr Muscat.

“Anyone venturing into politics will be perfectly aware that this is not a way to make money but to serve the people,” he said. He himself would like to remain a part-time MP.

Labour MP Marlene Farrugia was the only one all for full-time MPs, saying it should be the rule.

“As in any other profession or job there is no guarantee of success, and so somebody venturing into politics must be ready to shoulder responsibility if things do not pan out as expected and they fail to get re-elected.”

She backed the increase in salaries on condition that it would only be implemented if precarious employment was eradicated. “Everyone must earn what they deserve even those at the lower scale and not just politicians.”

Asked the same questions, Nationalist MPs Claudette Buttigieg and Claudio Grech echoed the party line, saying that, if the Prime Minister was not intent on increasing salaries, he would have never appointed the commission in the first place.

The Opposition would be willing to discuss any proposal but first the Prime Minister would have to admit that Labour’s campaign against the honoraria increase under the last PN government was a “deceitful” one.

Now that he was in government, Dr Muscat was in favour of the pay rise, they said. In view of this the Opposition could never accept a weekly increase of €1,000 in the Prime Minister’s salary.

They also said government backbenchers should not be appointed to public boards, as highlighted by the commission.