The problem of black dust refuses to go away and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi last night proposed setting up a parliamentary committee to trace the source.

He presented a resolution proposing a select committee presided over by the Speaker and including two MPs from each side of the House. Its task would be to compile all the facts about the issue and report back to Parliament.

The proposal came a day after the opposition criticised Dr Gonzi for having said in Parliament that the dust had not reappeared since August last year and the planning authority had no samples to conduct further tests.

The Fgura mayor yesterday called on Dr Gonzi to apologise for saying in Parliament the problem of black dust no longer existed. This was before the news of the resolution broke.

Mayor Byron Camilleri said he was surprised when, on Monday, Dr Gonzi said no tests were being carried out on black dust “because, since August 2009, we have not had reports that this problem resurfaced”.

Replying to a parliamentary question by Labour environment spokesman Leo Brincat, Dr Gonzi said the tests could only be carried out with a sample of black dust and, at present, “the planning authority does not have this sample because the problem doesn’t exist”.

Tests were not expected to be carried out unless the problem arose again, Dr Gonzi said.

The reply provoked a strong reaction from readers who sent in angry comments to timesofmalta.com, some saying they had swept up soot from their houses that very morning.

Mr Camilleri said he was disgusted at the Prime Minister’s statement which, among other things, confirmed the government’s lack of commitment to solving the problem in Fgura and its refusal to understand what the residents had to go through.

Even though the government had been promising to solve the problem since 1999, the matter only got worse and became a huge inconvenience to the residents, Mr Camilleri said.

“It is clear the government is detached from reality. After 11 years of unfulfilled promises, Dr Gonzi actually believes he can hide the gravity of the problem from the residents by saying it doesn’t exist,” he said.

Fgura residents did not deserve this treatment and could not take Dr Gonzi’s statement seriously, Mr Camilleri said. “I expect Dr Gonzi to apologise to the residents because everyone knows that, unlike what he said in Parliament, the problem of black dust still exists.”

Mr Brincat also turned his guns on Dr Gonzi, saying his statement was highly insensitive to all the families whose health was affected by this problem.

Dr Gonzi’s actions revealed that he never took the problem seriously, especially because he was afraid that the black dust would be linked to the Marsa power station, notably when the precipitators were switched off, Mr Brincat said.

Also, during a Budget debate in November 2009, Dr Gonzi had tabled a document saying the government was committed to sending abroad for testing samples of black dust and fly ash from the power station for a comparative study.

The issue was also raised during the adjournment in yesterday’s parliamentary sitting by the opposition spokesman on planning Roderick Galdes.