Parliament will debate an opposition no-confidence motion in three ministers on Thursday afternoon next week, with the debate limited to one sitting, the whip of the PN parliamentary group said on Wednesday.

Robert Cutajar, who was speaking in parliament, said the sitting would be held on a day reserved for Opposition business.

The motion expresses no confidence in ministers Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, Miriam Dalli and Silvio Schembri in the wake of the damning conclusions of the public inquiry into the construction site death of Jean-Paul Sofia.

The public inquiry had described how the construction site was not regulated at the time and that the state should bear responsibility for that. Sofia, 20, died in 2022 when a Corradino building collapsed while under construction. The ministers were responsible for the construction industry and state agencies who handed over the site and approved the project. 

Labour whip Naomi Cachia said the government had no problem in debating the no-confidence motion. Earlier in the week she said the Labour parliamentary group had full confidence in the ministers.

Why those three ministers?

Zrinzo Azzopardi was responsible for planning and the construction sector at the time of the incident in December 2022, while Dalli and Schembri were responsible for state agencies INDIS and Malta Enterprise. 

So far, four people have resigned in the wake of the inquiry,- three members of the Malta Enterprise board who sat on a committee that approved the transfer of the government land and the chair of the Occupational Health and Safety Authority.

A fifth person, Kevin Camilleri, was sacked from his role as head of Malta Enterprise's micro-enterprise unit.

The Opposition is insisting, however, that political responsibility needs to be assumed by the ministers who appointed those officials.