In a country where people relish breaking rules and regulations and where many pride themselves on their expertise at swindling the government, it is not surprising to hear about a string of restaurants operating illegally. It is estimated that at least 70 operate without a permit.

The obvious question is: what is stopping the authorities from closing them down? The answer, apparently, is that they are not exactly restaurants – in that they are only run for groups of people, not for the public. So, legally, they are not technically regarded as restaurants.

According to the Malta Tourism Authority, one restaurant owner had successfully appealed against its decision to close down his restaurant on grounds that the property did not have free access to the public and could, therefore, not be defined as a restaurant.

All of this sounds absurd for, clearly, these outlets are operating as fully-fledged eateries where people are served meals at a cost. Therefore, whether or not they can strictly speaking be called restaurants is purely semantics. The point is they are commercial establishments, so much so that they even advertise their fare – usually fenkata (rabbit) and majjalata (suckling pig), on social media. They therefore ought to be regulated.

The mind boggles at the extent to which people find loopholes in laws. However, there are other important issues involved in this matter.

If the authorities know, as they do, that these places, irrespective of what they are called, are being used for commercial purposes, in this case eating outlets, should they not also ensure that they have clearance from the health inspectorate?

This is not a light matter and whoever is responsible for this sector ought to get moving and make sure that the situation is regularised soonest.

There is more to the story than all this for it would seem that the MTA’s inability to regulate these restaurants does not mean they are allowed to operate. Apparently, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority can check the operation of these eating places, even if they cannot be technically called restaurants.

Mepa has in fact shut down eight places that were illegally operating as catering establishments and has issued enforcement notices against eight others.

It has said it received reports of illegal catering establishments operating across the island. If this is correct, it would appear that Mepa needs to strengthen its enforcement capability to ensure that the rest of the restaurants operating illegally are closed down or are made to conform to the laws of the country.

These eating places are not only taking away business from legally-established restaurants but they are also defrauding the government because they pay no taxes. Since they are obviously all known to the authorities, action ought to be taken to close all legal loopholes and shut these illegal places down.

Besides, there also ought to be greater monitoring of other illegalities taking place all over the island. Kiosk owners, hawkers and seaside restaurants do not think twice about infringing their permit conditions in various ways.

And what about health standards? Some eateries, particularly those frequented by a large number of people, give the impression that they are not following hygiene rules to the letter. Never mind the service – in far too many places this has become horrendous – but tackling the situation of restaurants operating illegally would seem to deserve priority.

Why is it ever so difficult in this country to enforce discipline? It is time to be firm with swindlers.