‘Purchasing power in Malta has declined’

The Malta Independent online
23 March 2010


Labour leader Joseph Muscat said that the purchasing power of wages in Malta had declined but in the rest of Europe it had risen according to figures from Eurostat published just days ago. At the same time consumers in Malta were having to make good for the highest rises in electricity and water tariffs in Europe.

Dr Muscat was speaking at a discussion activity when he said that wages’ purchasing power in the EU had gone up by an average of 2.4 per cent, but in Malta it had declined by 0.4 per cent. The Maltese had believed that with EU membership Maltese earnings would go up to European levels but instead of this happening the gap was widening and the quality of life was deteriorating.

It all proved it was not true that the problems of international competitiveness was due to wages.

The situation was that the only type of work that was on the upswing was part-time work as the main occupation of many people. Many rights were being undermined.

In comments he made recently, Dr Muscat said, Mgr Victor Grech had been forthright and spoke about the social situation in the country, referring to people on the minimum wages or earning just above it who could not cope with the cost of living. Poverty was again raising its head in Malta and even the middle class was feeling the pinch and falling back.

That was why there was no contradiction in the Labour Party saying it is a movement for labour and for the middle class. This class of people had always been clobbered, was taxed and had no one to defend it. Labour would be the movement to protect the rights of the middle class because that way they would incentivise the economy.

Today, Dr Muscat said, they were paying for the incompetence, inefficiency and corruption of the government. They were paying for a system at Enemalta where they did not even have internal auditing. The government was creating new entities, such as ARMS, and the people paid for the extra bureaucracy by having to pay six per cent backdated interest on bills which were paid late.

The Labour Party, he said, had offered solutions and showed how a change in the formula of how bills are worked out would lead to bills declining by €15 million. First it was claimed there had been no solutions offered, then that the solution was not viable, and then that it was possible but they created a pretext to not implement it.

On the health sector, Dr Muscat said this was weak through incompetence and lack of serious planning. The waiting lists for cataract operations was 500 in 1999 and 5,735 in 2010. Now the minister has said the problem would be solved by having two operating theatres for the operations, instead of one. The minister had waited that long with so many people suffering before offering the solution.

In orthopaedics, Lawrence Gonzi had found a waiting list of 4,600 when he became Prime Minister. This year the figure stood at 12,219. Then the health minister said he had cut that down by 49 per cent because people had had their operation in the private sector.

The Labour Party’s vision was to anticipate European mobility directives for patients by looking at joint ventures between the public and private sectors which would be sustainable by the best health care being given at no charge.

Having waited 15 years for the Mater Dei Hospital, they were now going to have to wait another three years for an oncology hospital. It was only now they were seeing the need for it. The hospital had first been announced in the budget speech in 2008 when Tonio Fenech had said it would cost €24 million. Then Lawrence Gonzi said the hospital would be costing €40 million and be ready in 2012, now in parliament they have just said the hospital would cost €48 million and be completed in 2013.

There was incompetence in many government sectors, including mismanagement at the shipyard. Millions had been lost on two ships, with a conservative estimate showing a loss of €40 million. The contract cost for the smaller ship did not even cover the costs of raw material, let alone the costs of the work done on it. On the other hand, the General Workers’ Union had calculated the loss at €80 million and now the government was selling the shipyard over 30 years for a mere €50 million. The bus owners would be getting in one day what the government would be getting over 30 years, Dr Muscat said.

The reform at the Malta Environment and Planning Authority was the second by Lawrence Gonzi. Everyone had forgotten the first, promised by Dr Gonzi in his race for the party leadership. A Labour Party group had considered the Mepa reform and found that one of the most serious shortcomings was that the reform did not indicate where it intended to take the country in 10 and 20 years’ time.

The Labour Party had considered the Mepa seriously and made its proposals, which Dr Gonzi had seen as weak. But various NGOs had agreed with them, including the Church’s environment commission.

Dr Muscat said the government had tried to gain mileage out of the European Commission decision to drop the case against Malta relating to the enlargement of the development zones. But the procedures against Malta had been dropped only because the development zones process had been started before Malta joined the EU.
http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=103499