Fireworks safety proposals made in 2011 could finally be incorporated in a set of legal amendments by the end of the month but enthusiasts insist they have not been consulted.
Everything stopped after the minister resigned
The Explosives Committee, which regulates the industry, has told The Sunday Times that by the end of November it plans to present the Government with detailed proposals on the basis of recommendations by a commission chaired by chemistry professor Alfred Vella, which last year carried out a comprehensive review of the fireworks industry.
The commission’s proposals, which included urgent recommendations such as the banning of dangerous chemical mixtures prohibited abroad, were presented in November 2011. But a year later, the proposals remain on paper.
Following last Sunday’s fireworks factory explosion in Għarb, which killed four people, the Government reacted to calls for the urgent introduction of the recommendations, saying it would stick to the plan and wait for the Explosives Committee to recommend how the measures should be implemented.
The Office of the Prime Minister, which is now responsible for the area following the forced resignation of Carm Mifsud Bonnici as Home Affairs Minister last May, also said it had held a public consulta-tion with stakeholders between February and May.
However, the secretary of the Għaqda Piroteknika Maltija, Godfrey Farrugia, disputed this, pointing out that stakeholders were waiting to discuss the report at a national conference that had been proposed by Dr Mifsud Bonnici.
“We were meant to have direct consultations with the minister regarding these proposals and we even prepared a position paper which has so far not been published,” Dr Farrugia said.
He added that the association was taken aback by the news that the Government planned to forge ahead on the basis of the consultation process carried out between February and May.
“The feedback (during that consultation) was poor and everyone knows this. The pyrotechnic association and all of our members were expecting a conference because that is what they were promised,” he said.
The process was a victim of the political situation that developed around Dr Mifsud Bonnici in the first quarter of the year, when he became the target of a fierce attack from PN rebel backbencher Franco Debono.
The minister was eventually forced to resign after losing an Opposition confidence motion, supported by the Għaxaq MP.
“The roadmap we had was disrupted. Everything stopped after the minister resigned.
“Then suddenly, to our surprise, it turns out the consultations are concluded... more to save face than for anything else. We expected a proper consultation period so things are done properly.”
Dr Farrugia said the association would discuss whether to make its position paper public but it found some of the recommendations by the Vella Commission (which included Joe Theuma, a former secretary of the association) to be sound.
“There are other measures which need to be fleshed out differently and others still where the Government perhaps should be more proactive.”
The Vella Commission had been set up in reaction to the September 2010 tragedy at the Farrugia Brothers Fireworks factory in Għarb when six people died.
Based on an analysis of accidents that took place over the past 30 years, the commission had warned unless the recommended measures were implemented, there was likely to be another accident this year or the next.
Last Sunday’s tragedy at the Qalb ta’ Ġesù factory in Għarb, which took place fewer than 500 metres from the site of the 2010 explosion, confirmed that forecast.