New so-called ‘family-friendly’ parliamentary hours are anything but and will actually discourage people, men and women, from seeking office, Nationalist MP Maria Deguara has said.

The times of parliamentary sittings on Wednesdays were last year moved to 4pm to 7pm instead of 6pm to 9pm as they had been before.

The measure was extended to the Tuesday sittings as from this year.

“These so-called family friendly hours are not friendly at all,” Dr Deguara said in an adjournment speech, adding that she would like somebody to explain how and why such a decision was taken.

“The new hours are bad for MPs who have professional offices that open between 3pm and 7pm and they are equally bad for MPs in employment, because hardly any job ends at 4pm,” she said.

And, she stressed, the new hours were very bad for young mothers, precisely the people for whom the new hours were addressed.

It would appear, she said, that the new hours were proposed by men who did not know much about raising children.

Holding sittings between 4pm and 7pm meant that MPs had to leave home at 3pm. And if they attended the whole sitting, they would return at 8pm.

Yet this was the time that mothers, particularly, got their children back from school, helped them with their homework, fed them, took them to Christian doctrine lesson and other events, and then put them to bed.

So how was the situation improved by the new hours?

Furthermore, MPs were part-timers who depended on their profession or job for their living. How could they keep their offices closed or leave their job in the afternoon?

She observed that plans were afoot for the new hours to also be extended to Monday sittings next year.

Before that happened, she said, those responsible needed to take stock of the situation and hold broad consultation. Many of the MPs she had spoken to, men and women, also appeared to see the new hours as problematic. 

While there was clearly a need for measures to encourage more women to serve in parliament, as it were, she feared that these new hours would discourage many valid people from coming forward.