So the government has decided to help first-time buyers by paying a third of the repayment of a mortgage for 10 years. This seems to be a good initiative to help first-time buyers, however when one ponders more deeply into the matter one starts to question the real reason for this initiative.

Is this the government's way of helping developers to sell their overpriced properties? Or is the government maybe trying to safeguard the building industry by making it easier for developers to sell their properties and thus encouraging them to build more and more and keep adding to the enormous amount of unsold and vacant properties?

If this initiative has been taken in order to maintain the building industry then the government could spend this money by using the building companies we have in Malta to start a massive programme for improving the infrastructure and rebuilding most of our roads while at the same time incorporating in these new roads the means of channelling all the excess rainwater which normally converts our streets into rivers as soon as we have a prolonged downpour.

An alternative use for this money would have been to maybe help our ailing manufacturing industries which seem to be heading into troubled waters due to the effect of the credit squeeze in other countries.

Finally, one asks where is this money coming from when one considers that our deficit is growing day by day?