Updated 5.30pm 

Jean Paul Sofia's mother promised on Wednesday to ensure that words are translated into action after receiving the report of the public inquiry into her son's construction site death in 2022.

She said she did not have enough words to thank all those who had supported her as she campaigned for the holding of the inquiry.

"I am determined to ensure that from words we move on to deeds. I am fed up of listening, now I want to see things done," she wrote on Facebook.

"I will not allow this report to be shelved after having worked so hard for the inquiry. I do not want my dear Jean-Paul to have died in vain, nor do I want anyone else to be lost because this broken system was not fixed." she said.

Later, she turned up to parliament where she laid a picture of her son and lit a candle ahead of a parliamentary debate about the report.

She repeated her call for people to work together to ensure the report's recommendations are implemented. 

The last time Bonnici followed a parliamentary debate was in the summer, when the government rejected an Opposition motion for the holding of the inquiry, only to change in mind after public outrage. 

Prior to the presentation of the report, Bonnici had told Times of Malta that she did not expect all the report's recommendations to be implemented at once, but all of them must be implemented at some point.

“I expect that those officials who failed to do their job and adhere to their responsibilities face justice,” she said. “I also expect the failures of the system to be addressed and the inquiry recommendations implemented. 

“I wish that boards are composed of people who take decisions in favour of laws that are not loopholed to allow strong people to abuse the system,” she said.

“I want to see honest politicians who work for the people, not for their pockets. And I don’t want any other mother to go through this suffering because of other people’s negligence.” 

The public inquiry was chaired by former judge Joseph Zammit McKeon, Auditor General Charles Deguara, and architect Mario Cassar. Their report was handed to the prime minister on Wednesday morning. It found the state responsible for oversight failures.

European Parliament president Roberta Metsola said the inquiry was held thanks to "the determination of this brave mother. Of the people who knew how to unite together against the evil in power”. 

She said this was the first step toward justice for Jean Paul, his parents and friends and the Maltese and Gozitan people.

In a reaction to the report, the NGO Repubblika observed that this was the second time that the state had been found responsible for a tragedy, after the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.   

It said the prime minister has a responsibility to ensure that whoever was responsible for Sofia's death shouldered his responsibilities. He would otherwise have to assume responsibility himself.  

Moviment Graffitti said the inquiry gave an “endless list” of failures by the state and the political class.

“From the way public entities served very dubious businessmen, to the way the authorities were completely absent from the enforcement and scrutiny of what passes through them, to the fact that the State failed (and is still failing) to introduce serious rules in the construction sector, in this report we see written in black on white our calamities of recent years,” it said.

Graffitti asked why the government and authorities did not take action earlier to address the dire situation of the construction industry.

“The answer is simple for anyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear: the developers in our country have stopped any kind of serious reform... The government prefers to protect the greed of the developers rather than the welfare of workers and residents. The result? Jean Paul Sofia and dozens of other workers ended up losing their lives on the altar of greed.”

“The burning question remains: why did the government and the authorities not take action earlier, despite the dire situation in the construction industry,” Graffitti asked.

ADPD chairman Sandra Gauci said the report was the fruit of a country in the pocket of developers.

She recalled that the Prime Minister had never wanted the report and had placed many obstacles for the inquiry not to be held. However, he was now posing as if he had made some acquisition.

She expressed serious doubts on whether the government would be following the proposals made because of the links of developers with the other political parties.

Gauci also called for the resignations of those mentions and an investigation within Malta Enterprise and Indis, which had approved the construction, described by the inquiry as “superficial”.

The Malta Developers Association welcomed the report which it said was “ an important cornerstone in the modernisation of the construction industry”. 

It noted that one of its recommendations was mandatory insurance for all contractors, so that they could be licensed, something it had been pushing for for years.

The implementation of this recommendation will help weed out amateurs from the industry, it said. 

It suggested that the inter-ministerial committee announced by the Prime Minister to implement the recommendations should include stakeholders and a representative of the inquiry for more effectiveness.

While agreeing with most of the recommendations, the MDA appealed for a number of them to be thoroughly assessed by the committee, rather than simply transposed.

One of these was the requirement of full planning applications for industrial estates, saying this would significantly increase the lead time for any attraction of investment. 

It noted that augmenting the bureaucratic processes “may inadvertently contribute to rising housing prices”.