Transport Minister Joe Mizzi this afternoon berated the Opposition for when it had said that the McGill company, which had shown an interest in Malta’s public transport, wanted to organise a meeting with bus drivers but the government had tried to keep the meeting under wraps.

The government, he said, had not even been advised of the planned meeting.

In a lengthy reply to Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, who asked the minister to table the public transport agreement with Autobuses de Leon as he had promised to do in the first two weeks of January, Mr Mizzi said he would keep his promise and table the agreement unlike the Opposition which had failed to keep a number of promises when in government.

He said that although the PN had said that it was difficult for National Express, another interested operator, to work with the government, the current bus operator in Malta, Autobuses de Leon, was a subsidiary of the same National Express.

Mr Mizzi said the Opposition had also poured suspicion on his visit to Spain to look into the preferred bidder’s operation. He said he had done this to make sure the public transport patrons would not be short-changed because Arriva had demanded a subsidy of €45 million, the Maltese contender wanted €40 million and Autobuses had agreed to €29 million.

The opposition had shown satisfaction when a court had initially upheld a mandate to stop the government dealing with Autobuses de Leon, but had shown no such emotions when the court finally decided to let Transport Malta go ahead.

The minister said he would be tabling the promised agreement at a later date.