Editorial

MPs return to parliament today after the summer recess. From now on, it is very likely that their attention will be focused more on campaigning than legislating. With three electoral tests expected within a year, one can hardly blame them. Indeed, the agenda of the House is so short one wonders why the House has been recalled so early. The order paper shows just one second reading debate and one committee debate in the whole House.

The second reading debate is on a bill to allow the government to enter into agreements for the mutual recognition of qualifications between Malta and other states. It is an important bill, particularly in the context of EU membership, and has a bearing on a wide range of professions and professional activities.

The Times highlighted the government's proposals when the bill was published before the summer, yet there has hardly been any public discussion about it, reinforcing the view that too many people seem to take their cue for debate on what the politicians say.

Next on the agenda of the House is the committee debate on the Sports Bill. The main purpose of the bill is to replace the Department of Sports with a newly-constituted sports council which would be free of government bureaucracy and hopefully achieve more in the sports sector with the same amount of money currently allocated to it. This committee debate has so far been interrupted by other business twice.

Still before the committee for the consideration of bills are the Employment and Industrial Relations Bill, the bill on procedures in courts and tribunals and bills amending the Post Office Act, the Referenda Act, the Civil Code, the European Convention and the Immigration Act. Clearly some bills are taking far too long to be approved by the committee, and yet a suggestion made by an MP for a second committee to be appointed has not been seriously consideed.

Unfortunately reform of standing orders, started at the time when Dr Lawrence Gonzi was Speaker, has now ground to a halt, with MPs having practically ignored proposals made in a report by Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, commissioned by the present Speaker.

The House also needs to assess why the activities of its committees have had so little impact on parliamentary life and the man in the street, but that is too late now for this legislature.

The coming few weeks are clearly going to be the calm before the storm. The winds of electioneering will be whipped up as the government presents its Budget in late November and, save for Christmas, cannot be expected to ease until the holding of the general elections.

Over the past months MPs have tended to increasingly argue over trivial matters, unnecessarily delaying proceedings and unduly demanding rulings from the Chair in a situation which did nothing to improve the public's esteem of the House. One doubts that it gave anyone any political mileage either. Indeed, people have become increasingly disenchanted with the behaviour of MPs from both sides of the House.

The recent comments by the Ombudsman himself about how his reports are being given scant attention by the House itself should serve to focus attention on what should be the priorities of MPs in the House. They should leave electioneering to their constituencies.