Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi welcomed the fact that there is now a national consensus on the need to privatise Malta Shipyards, and the workforce should know about it too. He said the situation would become more clear following a meeting which Finance Minister Tonio Fenech was to have with the General Workers' Union next Friday. Finger-pointing would not help.

Dr Gonzi mentioned the national consensus after Labour MP Anġlu Farrugia said the opposition agreed "in principle" with the prospect of privatisation.

The Prime Minister was speaking during question time in answer to a supplementary question by Helena Dalli (MLP), who compared his past confidence of finding solutions for the shipyards' plight and his more recent decision to privatise the enterprise.

Dr Gonzi said the shipyards had received €1,000 million in subsidies over the years, always in an effort to bring the enterprise to its feet. Downsizing should mean shrinking the workforce and declaring redundancies with no regard to anything else, but this would not be the case with the shipyards. He was optimistic that solutions would be found around a table, in the best interests not only of national finances but also of workers who would be declared redundant and their families.

Dr Gonzi said he had scrupulously kept his word after promising then Opposition Leader Alfred Sant, in a television programme, an elaborate technical presentation of the real situation at Malta Shipyards, but Dr Sant had not even turned up and sent Ms Dalli to the presentation. All questions had been answered, as Ms Dalli could confirm.