Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning that while he understood the anxiety which the run-up to a Cabinet reshuffle caused, matters had to take their course.
The prime minister was speaking on PBS.
Yesterday, Marlene Farrugia, the health minister's partner, spoke of the anxiety which the planned reshuffle was causing on ministers and their staff and questioned the delay.
Dr Muscat said he would first wait for the current President's term to end in three weeks' time and for Social Policy Minister Marie-Louise Coleiro to take her place, creating the vacancy and necessitating the reshuffle.