Transport Minister Ian Borg said a metro connection to Gozo was not economically feasible.

I think we should decide on an underground metro covering Malta and, maybe, with a link to Gozo.

Franco Mercieca, chairman of the steering committee of the Malta-Gozo tunnel, says 82 per cent of Gozo residents are in favour of the tunnel. I think what Gozo residents really want is better connectivity but not the disfigurement of Gozo. A metro would improve connectivity without flooding Gozo with cars.

Liberalising the sector would greatly improve the connectivity as it did in all other sectors.

Mercieca hints that without this tunnel, Gozo residents would be deprived of employment and social opportunities and modern lifestyles. A metro would serve this end better without the disadvantages.

He said that this tunnel would save Gozo from being only attractive to the poorer sections of society. I beg to differ. Gozo is not a slum area. The tunnel for cars may have this effect and may remove Gozo’s distinctive quality.

I smile wryly when he writes that strict developmental policies will protect Gozo from overdevelopment. Even now, the cake is being eaten up by who has money to invest, whether it is clean or not. Gozo will be left destitute and ruined like the small island of Nauru. It will no longer be attractive. All the ridges which can be built have been ruined. Now development has started below the ridges, as in Ħal Sagħtrija in Żebbuġ and I hear that a permit will be issued for bungalows below the old cemetery in Nadur.

All this talk about a centre of excellence for health in Gozo is laughable when Mater Dei Hospital remains managed by the government. And a centre of excellence for education is hard to conceive when a primary school is planned to be built in an already existing school.

That is why I conclude that all this propaganda is perverse logic.