Last week the Prime Minister visited the new school in Kirkop. Publicity of this new school has also been evident on billboards. The total investment is likely to reach Lm3 million.

Over the last years, a number of Church schools developed their premises further and a couple even opened new premises. We also had the development of a number of private schools. The University of Malta continued extending its premises in response to an ever increasing number of students. The investment in the educational infrastructure that has occurred over the last 18 years must be getting close to the Lm50 million figure.

Unfortunately we are taking this investment for granted as we have done in the past. Those persons who will be attending these schools in the years to come will not have to pay a cent for them to enjoy the benefits of such investments and will therefore never learn to appreciate the great amount of resources that went into such developments.

This is a replica of the past. We never used to question how much a school costs to build because a number of Church schools were built 50 or 60 years ago if not even earlier than that.

A number of state schools were also built at the time when Malta had not yet gained its independence and so were funded through resources put at our disposal by the various British governments of the time. One need only mention the Lyceum of Hamrun as an example. The investment had been done; it had been a good investment; and a good dose of maintenance used to keep it in good shape. The Maltese taxpayer paid for very little investment in school infrastructure until a few years ago.

Today a great deal is said about the expenditure being incurred to build the Mater Dei Hospital. The amounts came as a shock to all of us because we had not been used to having a new hospital being built, other than new wings at St Luke's Hospital complex. St Luke's Hospital and Boffa Hospital had originally been built through funds provided by the British government, just like the schools I mentioned earlier on. We used those two hospitals, never recognising the huge value of the property as an asset. The time came when we had to build a new hospital and we started to recognise that this is an enormous expense.

However, the issue does not stop here. There are today a number of properties owned by the state that have considerable value and one is therefore correct to ask whether we are making the most of the value of such properties. Officials of the Government Property Division go to great pains to ensure that individuals or private businesses do not abuse of such property. Their current policies and strategy is evidently aimed at maximising the return from such properties. And rightly so. However, I fear that their work is not being made any easier by the attitude of some.

The expectation of some people is that state-owned property comes for free and can therefore be used at will (their own will, obviously). This is evident from the picnics that take place during weekends in abandoned state-owned buildings. It is also evident from the extent of squatting that takes place on state-owned land. The squatters are not homeless people but bird trappers, property developers, kiosk owners, persons who rent umbrellas in summer, etc. It is equally evident from the way property developers take over space that is not their own when building premises for whatever reason.

Then there is the use that is made of state-owned property by Public Service departments. I will cite just one example. It is not meant to be a case of finger pointing at such a department because I am convinced that other examples exist. In fact one can mention the premises that are used as storage space for archives in prime sites.

The example I wanted to mention is, however, another one. We all know the building known as Customs House at Lascaris Wharf. The reason why the Customs Department was located there decades ago is very understandable.

That is close to where ships bringing in cargo used to berth and cargo was unloaded close to there as well. So the Customs Department had to be close to the action. Today most imports are unloaded at Malta Freeport. There is some which is unloaded at the Grand Harbour but nowhere close to where Customs House is. There is no doubt that the location of Customs House is a prime one. The development of VISET is proof of the importance of this location.

The question that I wish to ask is whether the state is maximising its return from such a property? Presumably the mentality is that once it came for free (even this property had been developed by the British colonial government), then there is no return to be maximised.

This leads me to the title of this week's contribution. I do not believe that we appreciate the real value of state-owned property, and this is damaging to the economy.