The Speaker, Anġlu Farrugia, has reached a draft agreement with telecommunications provider Go to stream live sessions of Parliament once they move to the new building at City Gate.
This will be at no cost to Parliament.
Dr Farrugia yesterday handed a copy of the draft agreement to members of the House Business Committee for their vetting before it is signed.
The committee has before it a proposed amendment to the Standing Orders to include television streaming, rather than just radio.
The Speaker and members of the committee will visit the new Parliament building on December 5 to have a look at its level of readiness.
PBS would give other stations a clean field for transmissions
The committee also discussed the schedule of debates on the Budget to be presented by Finance Minister Edward Scicluna on November 17.
Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil will reply a week later on November 24, and the Prime Minister will comment on those remarks the next day.
Ministerial debates will start on November 26 and end on December 4, with Parliament meeting every morning and evening and even in the afternoon on November 28.
It was agreed that only the TV cameras of PBS would be allowed in the House for the speeches by Prof. Scicluna, Dr Busuttil and Dr Muscat, with the proviso that PBS would afford other stations a clean field to relay the transmissions.
The committee room will be equipped as a press room with all facilities.
Next Wednesday, Transport Minister Joe Mizzi will formally present the Speaker with a five-seater electric car to be used for parliamentary work.
On the cards for plenary parliamentary debates in the next two weeks are the Bills on political party funding, lifestyles to prevent obesity, refugees and gender identity.
The committee decided that, contrary to what was being maintained by the Department of Local Government, parliamentary questions are not “political propaganda”, and any MP who gets a PQ answered is free to disseminate question and answer to local council members.
The Privileges Committee is to meet on November 27.
Parliament is expected to rise for the Christmas recess on December 17