Opposition leader Bernard Grech asked ministers four times in parliament on Monday whether they had asked their colleagues to assume political responsibility for the death of Jean Paul Sofia.

Yet, he was told each time by the ministers and the Speaker that the question was dismissed each time due to procedural issues. 

A public inquiry released last week found the state responsible for oversight failings that led to the December 2022 building collapse that killed the 20-year-old worker. 

Grech rose to ask Transport Minister Chris Bonett and later Education Minister Clifton Grima if they had urged their ministerial colleagues to take political responsibility. Both were replying to unrelated questions.

Speaker Anġlu Farrugia pointed out that in terms of standing orders and previous rulings, supplementary questions had to be related to the original. Ministers could only reply if they wanted to.

Bonett said that while he was not skirting the question, parliament was based on rules and procedures that needed to be respected.

Grima said one also needed to be ethical, especially about a matter involving the death of a young man and the sorrow of his family. One should not try to score political points, as the Opposition was trying to do. 

He said a well-run public inquiry had been held and its report enjoyed the moral authority, which should serve to unite everyone for the necessary reforms.

Earlier, Grima denied he had ducked out from six oral questions by not being present in the chamber when they started being called. He said he had inaugurated a school in Nadur at 11am and could not be in parliament for its early sitting of 2pm. He headed to parliament straight from the inauguration ceremony, he said.  

Parliament on Monday was continuing its debate on the Sofia inquiry report. Monday's was the third sitting about the report, with other sittings having been held on Wednesday and Thursday. 

Opposition MPs repeatedly hit out at the government for having resisted the holding of the inquiry, saying its actions had lacked empathy, solidarity or logic.

The Opposition MPs also insisted that it was not just administrative responsibility that needed to be shouldered but also political responsibility. Ministers needed to assume responsibility for the failures of the people they had appointed.

MP Mario de Marco added that the government and its institutions had failed to enforce the law, update regulations or even do anything after the tragedy itself to ensure there was no repetition.

The government was not only failing in raising safety standards in the construction industry, but in many other sectors too, such as the roads, tables and chairs along busy streets and high noise levels in several localities, he said.

Labour MP Katya Degiovanni underlined the need for rules to be enforced and for standards and practices to be audited, internally and externally. She hit out at the Opposition for focusing only on criticism and negativity without, she said, any reference to what needed to be done.  

Justice minister has lost his credibility

Mark Anthony Sammut (PN) said the Justice Minister lost his credibility when he said that the magisterial inquiry into the Sofia tragedy could also look into administrative and legislative failures and there was therefore no need for a public inquiry. The minister's claim was belied by the magistrate who led the magisterial inquiry, and the president of the public inquiry.

Sammut said that while the prime minister tried to give the impression on Wednesday that the inquiry report removed all questions over his actions or that of the government, the opposite was true, particularly the way rules were broken, lines were crossed and eyes were closed as the developers were given a public site which they should never have been entitled to.

Who had been pulling the strings, the prime minister, his ministers? Ministers Miriam Dalli, Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi and Silvio Schembri certainly had grounds to resign for what was described as an 'almighty mess' within the Executive. They could not try to shift the blame on people they appointed as persons of trust. Impunity had again caused a person's untimely death. Matters could no longer go on like this.

But Malta had a prime minister who even wanted to bring back politicians and operators who had manifestly wrongs, as was the case of Rosianne Cutajar, Justyne Caruana, Joseph Cuschieri and Joseph Muscat. 

Robert Abela had become the biggest problem of the country, undermining standards and fueling impunity. He had no shame, Sammut said. 

Parliamentary secretary for public works Omar Farrugia said that while the construction sector needed to raise health and safety standards it also needed to raise aesthetic and environmental standards to respect local characteristics. Love for the country needed to come before greed, he insisted. 

Owen Bonnici apology

Culture Minister Owen Bonnici said he was repeating what he had already written in joining others to apologise to the Sofia-Bonnici families when not enough solidarity was shown to them.  

He said it was a show of political maturity when the prime minister immediately published the public inquiry report and initiated a parliamentary debate about it. Isabelle Bonnici, Jean-Paul Sofia's mother, had declared that she did not want her son to have died in vain, and the government was therefore moving forward an agenda of change. 

Adrian Delia (PN) said the government attempted to deceive the people and Sofia's family by insisting there was no need for a public inquiry, and now that the inquiry board had clearly blamed the state for failing to ensure that there were the necessary checks on the Corradino site, no politician seemed to be willing to shoulder responsibility.

"How can we learn lessons when those who are most responsible will not - at least - bear their political responsibility?" he said.

David Agius (PN) said it was a pity parliament was still discussing what to do about this issue more than a year after the tragedy.  Cowboy attitudes in the construction sector had reigned for way too long and few lessons were learned, despite several building collapses in the last decade, he said.

PN MP Beppe Fenech Adami said the prime minister spared no effort to conserve the status quo with every chance he had. And to this day government MPs came to parliament with a straight face asking why they should shoulder responsibility.

"Mr Prime Minister and honourable ministers, the buck stops with you. You should be decent enough to resign," he said.

Parliamentary Secretary Glenn Bedingfield said this should not be a politicised discussion, but a joint effort to bring justice to the family of Jean Paul Sofia.

But the PN was only interested in winning political points, having even organised a telethon to raise funds, he said. Interjecting, PN whip Robert Cutajar said the telethon had been scheduled months before the inquiry report was published and it was not organised as a way to profit off the publication of the report.

Bedingfield criticised Bernard Grech for asking for a vote of no confidence on an issue that was not even raised in the public inquiry, saying he should have tabled a motion to have MPs unite to work together for one aim.

Meanwhile, he pledged that a Labour government would not sleep on the inquiry's recommendations and would see that they are implemented to bring the needed change to the sector. After all, Labour was always the party of change, he said, unlike the PN.

He also called on parliament to unite and introduce harsher construction laws that did not allow room for abuse.