Building irregularities should only benefit from the proposed amnesty if “small infringements, not obscenities” are involved, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said yesterday.
“We will have to see what the government is going to do in practice. What is certain is that we won’t be onboard with the regularisation of obscenities. This is something we are not prepared to agree to,” he said.
Dr Busuttil was reacting to the government’s plans to grant an amnesty to about 10,000 planning infringements across the island.
The Sunday Times of Malta revealed on February 1 that the government was preparing the mass amnesty for irregularities committed before 2013 and those outside development zones up to 1994, the year the planning authority was set up.
Through the scheme, the government aims to close thousands of enforcement cases that have been pending for years in an attempt to unclog Mepa’s system.
Dr Busuttil said he had not been informed how this would work and would only weigh in on concrete policies.
The Nationalist Party pledged to give a similar amnesty in the run up to the last general election.
Asked about this, Dr Busuttil said the PN’s proposal referred to “small infringements only” and it would not have signed off on brazen illegalities.
He was speaking during a visit to the new oncology centre at Mater Dei Hospital ahead of today’s World Cancer Day.
Dr Busuttil said patients being treated at the new centre enjoyed greater dignity than those still receiving care at Sir Paul Boffa Hospital, in Floriana. This, he said, raised concerns over plans to turn the Floriana-based hospital into a centre for overflow from Mater Dei. He was reacting to comments by Parliamentary Secretary Chris Fearne, who last week said that once oncology services migrated from Boffa Hospital to the new oncology centre, the Floriana building would be refurbished and used as a general hospital.
Dr Busuttil, however, said Boffa, with 80 beds, was rather small to be used as a general hospital and questioned whether this was an adequate solution.
He also raised concerns over the level of dignity that patients had at Boffa Hospital.
“The difference between this new centre and the Boffa Hospital is simple: patient dignity. I don’t think the old hospital gives patients the necessary dignity,” he said.
On Monday, the nurses’ union also raised concerns over the proposal, saying the 60 nurses required to operate Boffa Hospital would not be easy to come by. The union challenged Mr Fearne to say where the nurses would come from.
Union president Paul Pace said he had recently met the human resources management of the Health Division and no mention was made of converting Boffa Hospital into a general hospital.
The conversion of Boffa Hospital was not even included in the manpower capacity-building plan of the Health Division, he added.
Asked about this, Dr Busuttil said he was willing to discuss the matter with the government and was awaiting further details.