Yesterday’s sitting of Parliament at the Palace was a historic occasion because it “should be” the last to be held there, Speaker Anġlu Farrugia said last night, listing several shortcomings still to be ironed out in the new building.

Parliament first met in the current chamber on August 13, 1976, under then Speaker Emanuel Attard Bezzina.

The plan is to move to the Renzo Piano-designed building, up the road at the entrance to Valletta, on May 4, after the Easter recess.

Dr Farrugia said several parts of the parliamentary operation had already moved to the new building and his office was monitoring developments daily.

However, tests on the audiovisual system, including a card system to identify speakers, had been carried out with anything but satisfactory results, he said.

There was still work to be done on web-streaming of plenary sittings, the microphones, recording facilities, video streaming for public access over the internet and televised broadcasting to more than 80,000 households.

Dr Farrugia said he had given instructions to ensure that yesterday’s would really be the last sitting of the House in the Palace, and that the new building’s inauguration could go ahead as planned.