The latest National Statistics Office figures, highlighted in the lead front-page story of The Times (March 10), deserve close analysis. The core issue revolves round the fact that the number of children born out of wedlock in Malta seems to be increasing by leaps and bounds while all the authorities concerned appear to be looking the other way.

It has emerged that out of about 5,000 registered births in 1996, 289 belonged to unmarried parents. In 2008, only 3,721 births were registered but 1,048 of them were born out of wedlock. This dramatic 28 per cent increase in eight years brings into relief a festering social sore - a problem which deserves close and urgent attention by our political, social and religious institutions.

It is a problem which has been rearing its head perceptibly. I remember raising this issue in Parliament in 1997. My intervention was echoed through the media, particularly through a leading article in The Times. Since that time, this topic has practically disappeared from the radar of the media.

Meanwhile, the moral, social, economic and financial costs accumulate, while government and religious leaders scratch their heads and while social organisations are hard-pressed, coping with the side-effects of rising crime, broken families and deteriorating moral standards.

There is a case for stronger moral activism on the part of religious leaders and for enlightened initiatives by way of school education. But Malta's most urgent need is for the government to focus on this problem with urgency before our social fabric is irreversibly corroded.