Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on Sunday urged society to try understand and empathise with the parent or parents who abandoned a newborn baby in Buġibba.

The newborn baby was found abandoned but in good health on a porch on Friday.

Speaking during a brief radio interview on ONE, Dr Muscat said that rather than demonising the parents, society should help them.

The Prime Minister also hit out at those who were quick to blame the mother for abandoning the baby.

Dr Muscat said he could not understand how just the mother was condemned, when both parents were responsible for the baby.

He said Malta could not be a society that targeted women, and put all the responsibility of parenting on them.

On a positive note, Dr Muscat said hundreds if not thousands of families were willing to adopt the newborn baby.

“This is what makes us the country we are”, he said.

Dr Muscat said there had been three similar cases in recent years. 

School transport

Turning to the government’s new free transport policy, Dr Muscat said the changes had been pushed through in a relatively short period, without disrupting
the system.

The Education Ministry announced on Saturday that two agreements with transport service providers, one for state schools and one for church and private schools, had been concluded. 

Families who sent their children to church and private schools would save €700 a year on school transport, Dr Muscat said.

The Prime Minister said a study had shown the new €26 million measure would mean 6,300 fewer cars on the road.

He tempered expectations by warning that the first week of the scholastic year would inevitably results in the usually traffic jams, particularly if it rained.

Dr Muscat said the service providers would be paid directly, after the government ditched initial plans that would have required parents to apply for a refund.