(Adds Dr Fenech Adami's statement)

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this morning asked whether Opposition leader Simon Busuttil would be taking action against his deputy Beppe Fenech Adami now that it had transpired he lied when he said he only knew the Gaffarena family by sight.

Speaking in a brief telephone interview on One Radio, Dr Muscat said the media had now uncovered that Dr Fenech Adami had served as a lawyer for the Gaffarena family.

“Why did Dr Fenech Adami not mention his connections immediately?... And what about (former minister) Joe Cassar and (former PN general secretary) Joe Saliba’s connections?... I hope that the truth in all this will come out. Talk is cheap but will Simon Busuttil take action against,” Dr Muscat asked.

In a statement this afternoon, Dr Fenech Adami said he had declared he had been Gaffarena's lawyer when addressing a news conference a few days ago. This he said, had been a professional relationship which dated back to the time when he was not a member of Parliament.

Dr Muscat said that the previous government had left behind tangled webs which undermined the system.

“We are cleaning up the system and and will continue cleaning to continue coming up with positive results,” he said.

The Prime Minister spoke on economic results and said the successes being achieved were the result of the decisions the government was taking.

“Our economy is the fastest growing in Europe and we have the lowest unemployment rate since statistics started being kept… This is a fundamental success of this government. We have also reduced water and electricity tariffs and fuel prices, which, contrary to what the Opposition is saying, are among the lowest in Europe,” he said.

Dr Muscat said that last week he had also inaugurated the first foreign investment in Gozo in the past 20 years.

The government had convinced RS2, a company which had been based in Malta for a long time, to expand in Gozo and, as a result, a number of its Gozitan workers had already transferred there. It also employed more Gozitans and more would eventually be employed.

The Prime Minister recalled last year’s criticism when Mgarr ix-Xini in Gozo had been closed for three months for the filming of By The Sea.

The government had taken an unpopular decision for which it was extensively criticised but the film had left €20 million in the Gozitan economy and employed a lot of people.

It would now be used to promote Gozo all over the world. This would be the biggest advert Gozo had ever had in history.