Social Policy Minister John Dalli yesterday vowed to reduce hospital waiting lists and queues by giving more attention to primary health care.

Speaking in Parliament during the debate in reply to the President's Address at the state opening of Parliament, he said that the government had invested heavily to provide service of the highest quality. The hardware and software were available, as were the employees who were the best available and who were dedicated to giving the best service to their patients.

Mr Dalli said that Malta lacked human resources and the need was felt more than ever for a better trained and more professional workforce. Incentives would be introduced in this context. The Employment and Training Corporation (ETC) would be strengthened to fulfil its aim of training the workforce and developing the workers' individual talents, rather than providing employment. In this sphere, the ETC would make use of EU funding.

Earlier, Minister Dalli referred to the important place the family had in the government's overall programme, since this was the backbone of Maltese society. Women had an important role in the world of work.

Turning to familial problems, Mr Dalli emphasised zero tolerance to domestic violence. He welcomed the role of the children's lawyer to fight for children's rights within a structured dialogue to find the best solution for the parties involved.

The rent law reform was to be given priority, and this revision would be carried out in line with present-day society needs.

The inequality between the sexes should be eliminated through mutual respect. Society should look at each person's potential, regardless of gender. Measures would be taken towards integrating drug and alcohol abusers back into society after helping them with their problems.

Mr Dalli said that persons with disability were always in the forefront of the government's plans: they had every right to be helped towards better integration in society and be provided with equal opportunities.

The pension reform would soon be finalised and this would ensure a better quality of life for pensioners and help them enjoy a comfortable new phase in life.

Pension reform started two years ago when the government legislated for a gradual raising of the retirement age and the maximum pensionable wage.

The legislation also allows for the introduction of a compulsory second pillar pension and a voluntary third pillar. However the government had said, at the time, that the economic situation was not conducive to the introduction of mandatory contributions from workers and employers for the second pillar pension.

Mr Dalli said pension reform had to be resumed with dialogue and commitment by everybody so as to ensure that the people had an adequate pension and did not suffer a drop in living standards when they retired.

However, Mr Dalli said, pensions were not the only major issue with regard to the elderly. While it was good to have old people's homes, the best way forward was to provide the support and services which would enable the elderly people to live within their environment. The government wanted to develop existing services and introduce new ones, but that created a demand for even more trained human resources, which were not easy to come by.

Parliamentary Secretary for Health Joseph Cassar insisted that the government gave utmost importance to the health sector. So much so that it had voted €200 million to it.

Radical changes had been made to ensure free good-quality service through the Mater Dei Hospital, where the patient was the focal point of all activity. The introduction of the Pharmacy of Your Choice scheme was a step in the right direction to drastically cut down long queues besides making life easier for the beneficiaries. He said that more than 22,000 people had already made use of the scheme.

Through educational campaigns Maltese citizens were being helped to look after their health properly while voluntary societies and organisations had been legally and officially recognised. This provided a sound basis for the future.

Dr Cassar said Malta was a centre of excellence. Euract, a council which trains family doctors, had chosen Malta to hold its annual conference despite the competition offered by other European countries.

The government had introduced schemes such as higher stipends for University students who have chosen the health sector as their career. It also provided specialised courses with specialised curricula, which served as an incentive for Maltese doctor graduates to keep on working as doctors in Malta instead of going overseas.

Dr Cassar said he was concerned that Opposition leader Alfred Sant yesterday said that 70% of Maltese graduate doctors were going to work in the UK. Through a news release the Malta Medical Students' Association also referred to the issue. But, Dr Cassar said, for the first time this year Maltese graduate doctors would continue specialising in Malta.

Cancer patients would soon start being received at Zammit Clapp Hospital, where there was more space and patients could be accommodated better.

Dr Cassar said each patient's medical history would now be stored electronically, thus ensuring easier access to information.

New Labour MP Owen Bonnici referred to the Lisbon Strategy, which aimed at having the best world economic structures by 2010, emphasising the need of innovation and upgrading the workers' health.

He said each worker's talent, thoughts, experiences and intellect should be at the very forefront of all activities. This would result in workers giving added value to their work.

Concluding, Dr Bonnici said that it was most unfair for workers to be employed on an indefinite contract.

Labour MP Leo Brincat noted that the President's speech lacked the main thrust of the government's programme on foreign affairs and IT. He welcomed the underlying consensus between the government and opposition in these spheres and insisted the opposition had to be kept informed in real time.

Mr Brincat said that apart from illegal immigration and oil research, nothing was said regarding relations between Malta and the US, Russia, China and other emerging economies. It was important for Malta to focus on Asia, without diminishing the EU's importance. But even the EU was finding it difficult to keep abreast of the progress being registered in Asia.

During a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee he had asked Minister Tonio Borg whether he agreed with an Italian minister's contention that would-be terrorists could be attracted to use Malta as a staging post to reach European targets. Minister Borg had replied in the negative, but now even the US was acknowledging this possibility.

Mr Brincat said the President's speech had stated the obvious. The opposition was ready not only to support the government in those areas which were agreed upon but would also come out with new ideas.

Turning to IT, he welcomed Minister Austin Gatt's statement that Smart City was increasing its IT footprint. He recalled that during the previous legislature, the opposition had emphasised that Smart City was giving more emphasis to property than to IT.

Mr Brincat paid tribute to Mr Philip Micallef who was recently appointed chairman of the Malta Communications Authority. However, he noted, the appointment was a direct one when during the electoral campaign the government had promised to issue notices of interest for such posts. Many people were being mentioned as being earmarked for similar positions. It was good to mention good governance and transparency, but the past had proved otherwise.

Concluding, Mr Brincat invited the government to work towards national reconciliation.

Joseph Cuschieri (MLP) said that the political sector was almost totally ignored in the President's speech. The government had to prove to be democratic with facts.

The joining of the Partnership for Peace programme showed lack of good will. The country needed a national consensus as new priorities had emerged especially after the general elections. After a similar result, the Germans had formed a government of national coalition. The need was felt for political maturity.

He criticised the government over state broadcasting, and suggested that a solution to its impartiality had to be found after consultation with the Opposition.

Mr Cuschieri said that democracy should be shown also during the entire electoral process. Subjects for discussion were how Maltese citizens residing abroad came over to vote, the buying and selling of votes, and people in old people's homes being taken to vote en masse.

Even the Department of Information should be impartial, and not side so blatantly with the party in government. This presented a severe threat to democracy, he said.

New Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami said the electorate had given a sign of confidence in the country's electoral system by turning up to vote in high numbers.

Dr Fenech Adami said his government was committed to keeping the family at the centre of its efforts. But he pointed out that while there were many agencies tackling the problems of already-broken families, not enough was being done for a strategy to be drawn up to save families from breaking up in the first place. The government and NGOs should work together to come up with such a strategy.

On illegal immigration he said it was important for both the government and the opposition to have a common policy and work to convince the EU to shoulder part of the burden. But the problem should not be considered in numbers because it involved persons who had their dignity. He said there were immigrants who were being exploited and the EU was working to legislate against such abuse. Both the government and the opposition should agree that this abuse should be curbed.

There was consensus between the government and the opposition that education was the key to the future. The government was committed to education, to renovating schools and to investing in IT. The government, he said, had to be careful that no one should fall behind. There had to be a social web to help those who could not be as successful as others. While the state paid for a facilitator for children with special needs in Church and state schools, facilitators in private schools had to be paid for by parents. The government, he said, should start providing facilitators in private schools for students with special needs.

New Labour MP Luciano Busuttil said the President had referred to the creation of more and better work opportunities. In contrast, he said he was worried after reading an article in a local newspaper about the probable closing down of ST Micro-electronics, threatening the livelihood of about 2,500 employees. There was a threat to the manufacturing sector as a result of bad political decisions taken by the government during the last legislature.

Dr Busuttil asked how university students' stipends were going to be revised.

He pointed out that the President had dedicated just a paragraph to local councils, and he found this as very negative indeed. He insisted on the need for more attention to be directed towards good governance in the councils.

Law enforcement officers, both those of MEPA and local wardens, should be given proper training so that they could carry out their duties more efficiently. The opposition wanted to work hand in hand with the government in this, so that law enforcement could be carried out without fear or favour.

Parliamentary Secretary for Public Dialogue and Information Chris Said said that the government wanted its decisions to be the fruit of widespread consultation with the sectors involved. The setting up of his Parliamentary Secretariat was proof enough.

High on the government's priorities was the strengthening of the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development (MCESD), which would include a committee for social affairs representing all the major social strata and a regional committee for Gozo. Consultations were already under way with Gozitan sectors on the setting up of the latter council.

The government had also started consultations on the drawing up of the next pre-Budget document.

The re-institution of Meusac was another government priority to deal with EU affairs and information thereon, bringing to the fore the importance of the EU to Malta.

The government was keen to strengthen more accountability and greater access to information. The reorganisation of the DOI would be an important step in this regard, as would the Freedom of Information Act.

Local councils, introduced 15 years ago, now represented continuous progress in Malta's towns and villages. It was important that they make more judicious use of public and EU funds.

Dr Said paid tribute to local councils for having been the cradle of youths taking their first steps in local politics, adding that many new faces in the House were proof of this phenomenon.

The government could help local and national politics by being more organised in the running of its affairs, with the ultimate view of establishing one-stop shops.

Dr Said said he was intent on helping more effective use of information, and was looking forward to working with all interested parties in this regard.

Joseph Falzon (PN) said that the result of the last election indicated that the electorate had clearly shown it was mainly interested in moving forward to a vision and a future, rather than in partisan politics. The PN had won the election because it had sought the country's national interests, rather than its own policies.

This new parliament should not be reduced to an arena of partisan arguments and the achievement of party benefits, but rather the concerted facing of national challenges. One of the most important aspects in this context would be the tone of the opposition's speeches in reply to the President's speech. It should criticise when criticism was well placed, but not for the sake of opposing.

The country needed both sides of the House to collaborate in delineating sustainable development. One major effort in this regard was to reduce the country's dependence on oil in favour of alternative energy, not only for economic but also for very valid environmental reasons. The benefit would be much greater if the topic was handled without partisan overtones.

The Nationalist government had been joined by almost the whole spectrum of social partners in its handling of the country's major issues, leaving the MLP isolated in its opposition. Mr Falzon said he hoped that in future such important issues would also see the MLP joining in collaborating.

Labour MP Carmelo Abela said that Labour had for years been stressing the importance of reducing bureaucracy to promote investment. He said it seemed there was commitment to see how the country could attract more and other EU funds. But an effort had to be made to assist councils which were unable to apply for such funds on their own and needed assistance.

The President's speech was positive but not new, and most of it had just remained on paper. It was a reconciliatory speech following the electoral battle. This contrasted sharply with what PN general secretary Joe Saliba had said in the party's general council a few weeks ago, that the government should do as it had always done and leave the MLP standing.

Mr Abela said that in the electoral campaign there were circumstances where the fight for votes rode roughshod over political maturity. To work for the benefit of the country there should be no imposition, especially by the majority over the minority. What was needed above all was discussion and not imposition.

A distinction had to start being made between the interests of the government and those of the Nationalist Party.

He said that certain lack of agreement between the government and the opposition should not be interpreted as a lack of convergence in the national interest. This was, after all, a democratic and not a dictatorial country.

Mr Abela said that importance was being given to physical structures in education but not to education as such, to sciences, challenges in the post-secondary and tertiary levels, for example. He hoped that new investment in IT would be made in each and every school as soon as possible. This had to be accompanied by teacher training.

The country, Mr Abela said, still lacked a strategic plan on lifelong learning even though the EU had announced the need for countries to have such a plan years ago.

The government and the opposition should work together to overcome the challenges of the Lisbon Strategy, and more importance should be given to maritime education, he concluded.

The three-session debate ends today.