Updated 12.55pm - Added video
Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia this morning invited the government to sit down with the Opposition to address a series of problems he believes are getting out of hand.
“Let’s sit down and talk, acknowledge that there are problems and discuss ways forward,” Dr Delia told party supporters in a short address at the PN club in Mosta, pointing to education, transport, pensions, waste management and crime as sectors which needed addressing.
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Referring to the teacher shortage issues that made headlines in recent weeks, the PN leader said that while the government was giving the impression that teachers are being heard, this is not really the case.
“If the government does not even have any plans for one of the country’s pillars, how can we expect action in other areas?” Dr Delia said.
Time for real transport measures - Delia
Moving on to traffic, the Opposition leader said that it was high time real measures to address transport problems were introduced, adding that people do not care about the numbers of the past but concrete solutions to their present problems. In last week’s Budget, he went on, no such solutions were even mentioned.
“If it took you an hour and a half to get from one place to another before the Budget, it will take the same time after the Budget,” he said, again inviting the government to discuss ways forward to address this issue.
On pensions, Dr Delia said that instead of giving people who have worked for this country the assurance that they would continue to live in dignity, the government has handed them a €2 weekly increase.
He added that the government’s lack of planning was also evident in waste management, and the Opposition’s refusal to sit on a committee to discuss this was a result of this.
“We do not want to be on committees where the decisions have already been taken. The government ignored the problem for four years and now that the problem escalated, it wants us to join in to share the blame,” Dr Delia went on.
The Pn leader went on to say that while the police made the biggest-ever drug find this week, the government only made a three-line reference to crime in the Budget.
He insisted that even in Opposition, the PN would be working hard to ensure that people’s lives improved.
Dr Delia's speech prompted a two-line reaction from the Labour Party in which it accused him of not knowing whether he wanted to help or hinder the government.
"On Monday he said 'the Opposition wants to help a government with no plan' while today he said 'we're not here to help the government, but to criticise it,' the PL said.