The PN on Wednesday slammed Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri for spending a summer absent from public fora and resurfacing with no solution for the several scandals exposed over the past months.

Calling for his resignation, PN spokespeople Darren Carabott and Claudette Buttigieg said the minister's "well-rehearsed copy and paste replies" to journalists only showed he continued to hide from the media and the public "while shifting the blame onto everyone but himself".

In two interviews he gave to journalists from Times of Malta and MaltaToday, Camilleri failed to provide any solutions, they said.

"It is becoming increasingly clear he has lost control of the situation and of nearly every department under his responsibility."

The two were referring, among others, to an alleged scam which saw the government's identity agency Identita' issue Maltese ID cards on the basis of forged documents. In August, a magistrate upheld an application by Jason Azzopardi for the holding of a magisterial inquiry into the matter.

That same month, Times of Malta revealed how dozens of people claimed to have discovered that their medical files contained upcoming appointments for serious tests and surgeries they did not need, data about hospital admissions they never underwent and medication they were never prescribed for illnesses they never had.

Meanwhile, tourists driving rental cars while on holiday in Malta were unknowingly fined for traffic contraventions committed by local drivers in an alleged complex fraudulent racket operated by LESA officials, swindling millions of euros out of public coffers.

Camilleri should have addressed allegations about the Identity Malta scandal, the chaos created in the hospital records system and other government entities as soon as they were exposed, the shadow ministers said.

He should also have explained how authorities allowed social benefits to be issued to people registered under false addresses, and say what steps were taken regarding the allegations about LESA.

"The only response the minister gave was that the government entities at the centre of these scandals filed reports with the police. This, therefore, means that the Police Commissioner did not take any action.

"And by the minister’s own argument, it also means that another department under his responsibility – the police – has also failed," they added.

Carabott and Buttigieg told a press conference that according to Camilleri, Identity Malta suspended a staff member in connection with the Identity Card scandal, meaning he kept this information hidden for all these months.

"The minister failed to mention what Identity Malta said, namely that an internal investigation was conducted. This raises further doubts over whether this investigation took place, especially since the government failed to accept PN’s challenge to publish it."

The shadow ministers slammed the government for being "reactive" and without a plan, only responding to scandals when they were exposed.

"The PN is disappointed that the minister has come up with no solutions to people’s concerns.

"On the contrary, he continues to justify withholding certain information from the public. It is also disappointing that the government is failing to adopt the PN’s proposal to create a system where property owners can verify how many people are registered on their property."

These are Camilleri's latest "major failings" according to PN:

• Extending Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà's contract despite his clear failure
• Identity card scandal involving false addresses
• Two magisterial inquiries: one on LESA and another on Identity Malta
• Incidents such as the one on Saturday in Ħamrun, where enforcement officers and their families suffered the consequences of lack of investment and resources in the Police Force
• Secret meetings in prison between Yorgen Fenech, the head of prison strategy, and third parties
• Failure to publish the Labour Market Research Study regarding the plan to import foreign workers into the country
• No indication of reform, vision or a plan for the home affairs ministry

Reacting to Carabott and Buttigieg's press conference, the PL said the two were the type of politicians that could not be trusted with the country's leadership.

Camilleri and the party had implemented well-studied changes that strengthened the disciplinary corps, the PL said in a statement