The Speaker yesterday ruled that only the government of the day, as a collective client, could relieve the Attorney General of professional secrecy, as he was “not a normal witness” but the incumbent of a constitutional appointment.

Anġlu Farrugia gave the ruling after Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee chairman Tonio Fenech (PN) asked him to give direction on how far the AG could be expected to go in replying to questions asked by committee members.

The case in question is the committee’s investigation of the government’s decision to drop a lawsuit instituted by the previous administration for the recovery of Australia Hall in Pembroke.

On Monday, Attorney General Peter Grech had declined to answer questions by Jason Azzopardi (PN) on the grounds of professional secrecy.

Calling the issue “something the likes of which has never occurred in Maltese parliamentary history”, Dr Farrugia yesterday dwelt at length on historical background, quoting Erskine May and House of Commons procedure before delivering the effective part of his ruling.

He said it could be anticipated that such issues would crop up but he appealed to both sides of the House to demonstrate good sense, in that when an issue was adequately covered at law it was useless getting into deep debate that could hold up the PAC’s work.

Each committee member was therefore expected to continue to cooperate with the chairman to avoid such circumstances.