Updated - Adds Konrad Mizzi's reply below - Labour MP Marlene Farrugia this afternoon demanded answers from the government regarding the energy sector and said the company building the new power station has ridiculed the government.
Speaking in Parliament during the Budget debate, Dr Farrugia said that two-and-half years into the legislature and after a third of Enemalta had been sold off, the power station was still using heavy fuel oil.
The company building the new power station had ridiculed the government by not delivering the new power station on time, by reconstituting itself and then by being given a €360 million state guarantee.
The prime minister had argued that such a state guarantee to a private company was done elsewhere. Reference was made to a guarantee given in the UK for a new nuclear power station.
But it was good to know that in the UK this funding was issued through a special mechanism. There was a structure for this sort of thing. In Malta, there wasn't.
Dr Farrugia said this was a serious matter. Several businessmen, jokingly or not, had asked her whether the state would guarantee their borrowing.
Dr Farrugia called on the government to publish contracts it had signed regarding the energy sector, including the privatisation deal with Shanghai Electric.
Enemalta had been in financial difficulties, but it had assets and lands. What would become of the lands, particularly the area in Marsa occupied by the old power station?
If the area was going to be used as an energy bub, what did this imply?
Concluding her address, the Labour MP reiterated that should the House be asked to vote, she would vote against embryo freezing. This, she said, was the most sacred thing for parliamentarians, whose durt was to safeguard life and improve the quality of life.
KONRAD MIZZI REACTION
In a reaction later, Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi said the state guarantee for Electrogas was temporary, for 22 months, which was different from that in the UK.
He said the power station site in Marsa would be used for mixed development which would raise the value of the area.