Pauline Miceli

Former Labour councillor Pauline Miceli is expected to become the new Commissioner for Children.

Ms Miceli resigned from the Naxxar council two weeks before the Parliamentary Social Affairs Committee was even informed of her nomination, sources said.

In a Facebook post on October 28, the local council announced her resignation due to “new commitments she will be taking on in the coming days”.

Her replacement, Marlon Brincat, was elected on November 9 – the same day the committee was summoned to discuss Ms Miceli’s appointment.

The committee will be meeting this evening to have a second discussion about her nomination. Due to Labour enjoying a majority on the committee, she is expected to be approved.

Ms Miceli is also deputy chairwoman of the Employment and Training Corporation, a post from which she has not resigned.

When contacted and asked about her vision for the role, Ms Miceli said she could not comment yet: “Not at this point,” she said. When asked why, she replied that there were still “formalities” ongoing.

She resigned from the local council two weeks before the parliamentary committee was even informed of her nomination

Approval by the parliamentary committee is a legal procedure, not a formality.

“When it’s official we can talk… if it materialises after all,” Ms Miceli said.

Ms Miceli was a former Labour candidate in the general election but did not make it to Parliament. She was elected to the Naxxar local council on the Labour ticket in the last local council elections.

Family and Social Solidarity Minister Michael Farrugia, under whose remit the Commissioner for Children falls, was elected from thesame locality. Dr Farrugia did not reply to a request for comment yesterday.

Ms Miceli will replace Helen D’Amato, a former parliamentary secretary, who was appointed Commissioner for Children for a three-year term that was supposed to come to an end in May 2010.

Ms Miceli is a former secondary school teacher and was the head of Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary School for a number of years.

She has published two collections of children’s stories and one on women.

This meets some of the qualities and skills identified by children during a consultation exercise carried out with children nine to 17 in November 2013.

The results showed children preferred to have someone whose background was teaching, but they wanted someone relatively young, aged 30 to 45.

All three commissioners have so far been women.