Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil today accused the Labour Government of "hypocrisy" and said the public was demanding an explanation from Prime Minister Joseph Muscat about this morning's revelations regarding parliamentary secretary Franco Mercieca.

Mr Mercieca, an eye surgeon, was given a limited waiver to continue his medical practice to conduct operations for which only he had the necessary specialisation.

But The Sunday Times of Malta this morning revealed he was conducting routine operations at a private hospital, including laser surgery and cataract operations, and earning some €3,600 in a single morning.

Speaking at the end of a PN general council, Dr Busuttil said this behaviour was hypocritical from a party that spent five years slamming the Government for giving its ministers a weekly increase of €500.

Dr Busuttil said Dr Muscat and Mr Mercieca "lied" to the public when they claimed this waiver was granted in the interests of patients and that he was only working on Sunday mornings.

Earlier, Dr Busuttil - who addressed the council dressed down with a white shirt and a lilac tie - acknowledged that the previous Nationalist Government had committed a series of mistakes.

"36,000 people cannot be wrong," he said, recalling Labour's landslide victory three months ago today. He said the PN must accept the result and go back to the public with humility. He also apologised to everyone the party might have wronged in the past five years and said he would, from tomorrow, begin daily house visits, as he expected his MPs, candidates and local councillors to do.

Closing his speech, he stressed that he did not want to be glorified as a leader.

"I am not here to be something. I am here to do something. And I want to do this with a team," he said as he called newly elected officials Beppe Fenech Adami, Mario de Marco, Chris Said, Ann Fenech and others to the podium.

"This is TeamPN," he said.