IT Minister Austin Gatt said this evening that the police were still making arrests as part of their investigations into at attack on the government e-mails system at MITTS.

He told Parliament that the investigation was still going on "at full swing, 24 hours a day" and all available resources had been deployed just on this case.

The minister was reacting to a motion moved by Opposition leader Charles Mangion who demanded an emergency debate and a detailed government explanation on hacking of government systems at MITTS.

He said the people needed to be given assurances that everything was being done following the hacking.

It was unacceptable that passwords had been leaked and the people needed an assurance of privacy and security, more so since the government systems included highly confidential information, even on matters of taxation.

He said that many people, including government MPs, were now reluctant to use the government e-mail system.

Dr Gatt in his reply said that it was far too early to hold such a debate because investigations were still in full swing and he could not, therefore, speak as openly as he would like.

He said that this attack took place three weeks ago and the necessary counter-action had been taken. The police were going through hours of logs and he did not wish to say anything which could harm their investigations.

Dr Gatt said the system that had been attacked had nothing to do with the e-government system.

He said he would be happy to have Parliament debate the issue once investigations were complete and he could speak openly.

Speaker Louis Galea refused the Opposition's request.