The planning authority has been asked by the Labour Party to look into claims that Nationalist deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami breached planning laws by constructing an “astronomically” large swimming pool.

The request was made yesterday during the third news conference in as many days, addressed by Economy Minister Chris Cardona and Labour representative Ian Castaldi Paris.

Quoting from a reply given by a planning authority spokesman, he said that the maximum footprint of a swimming pool in an outside development zone area, as is the case with Dr Fenech Adami’s garden, was 75 square metres, including the deck area.

A few months ago, he spearheaded a protest against ODZ development at Żonqor

The economy minister said the PN deputy leader had blatantly breached such limits, claiming that Dr Fenech Adami’s pool and deck area had a footprint of 700 square metres or “one-and-a-half times the size of the square in front of the new Parliament building in Valletta”.

Dr Cardona accused the PN deputy leader of “institutionalised hypocrisy” in the wake of the fact that Dr Fenech Adami a few months ago had spearheaded a protest against the ODZ development at Żonqor.

“This is the first test for PN leader Simon Busuttil to prove himself following his remarks on Dissett that he would show the door to any PN MP if he had an indication they were involved in corruption,” Dr Cardona said.

In a statement, the PN said that the only investigation that needed to be carried out was into the secret companies in Panama belonging to Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri.

As for the allegations about Dr Fenech Adami, the PN said that the PL had persisted in its lies and noted that the pool deck was not larger than 50 square metres.