Cost of living, utility bills top concerns in 2006

The year ending today was neither good nor bad for 40.3% of the Maltese; however, it was a good year for 36.7%, and even a very good year for 1.7%. Those who thought 2006 was a bad year for them made up 20% of those surveyed, while for 1.3% it was a very bad year.

An absolute majority of those in the AB socio-economic group - 51.9% - thought it was a good year, a feeling shared by almost half (46.8%) in the 16-25 age group. For 24.4% of those in the 36-50 age group and 34.5% in the DE socio-economic group, however, 2006 was a bad year.

Asked to evaluate 2006 for Malta, 2% said it was a very good year and 33.3% a good year; for 41% it was neither good nor bad, while for 18.3% it was bad, and for 5.3%, a very bad year.

These are the main findings of the latest public opinion survey carried out by sociologist Mario Vassallo on behalf of The Sunday Times. Interviews for the survey were carried out by telephone among 300 persons between December 1 and 12.

Asked what the main problems currently facing Maltese society were, 55.7% indicated the cost of living, while 40.7% identified water and electricity bills. These were followed by illegal immigration (37.7%), unemployment (32.3%) and exaggerated taxation (29%) - respondents could give more than one answer.

Other worrying issues included dirty environment, the drop in tourism, the state of the roads, the crisis of values, drugs, lack of law enforcement and the high cost of medicines.

Respondents were asked to say whether a serious public effort is being made to tackle a number of specific issues. Scoring lowest were the workings of MEPA, the cost of living, the cost of medicines, corruption, local wardens' behaviour, lack of law enforcement, low productivity of government employees, water and electricity bills, and illegal immigration.

Asked to comment on these findings, Professor Vassallo said: "When the Maltese were asked to evaluate the past year in a generic way, a feel-good attitude was very common. The detailed analysis however suggests that, on reflection, the Maltese do not hesitate to voice their concerns on the serious problems that the country is facing.

"Naturally, in such matters one has to deal with constantly shifting goal posts: expectations always exceed performance. This is an everyday problem for the politician because by nature we all want more than what we have.

"But the detailed findings, reported in another section of this issue, clearly show that economic matters feature very prominently in the list of concerns among the Maltese. In more than one way perhaps, action, or the lack of it, on the areas specifically covered by this study, is probably what will determine the outcome of the next general elections," Professor Vassallo concluded.