A request for parliament to give more resources to Opposition leader Adrian Delia has been slammed by the government as tantamount to a taxpayer "bailout".
The matter was debated in parliament on Monday during the 2020 financial plan for the House of Representatives.
Leader of the House Chris Fearne, who opened the debate, accused the Opposition of seeking to score political points in a discussion about strengthening the county’s institutions.
He claimed that the Opposition’s sole intention was to cover the salaries of two ‘Dar Ċentrali’ (PN headquarters) employees.
“If such request is made, I will be against it as these resources should go to strengthen parliament not political parties,” he warned.
He said he was in favour of having more resources for all MPs so that they could employ better research tools to keep government under scrutiny and analyse Bills.
“Good governance is not brought about by addressing political activities on Sunday morning but by concrete measures,” he said.
The deputy prime minister also dwelled on party financing saying these could no longer depend on huge donations from big businesses. “Nobody makes these donations for charity,” he said.
Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri echoed Mr Fearne’s criticism saying the Opposition’s request was tantamount to the Nationalist Party requesting a “bailout” from taxpayers’ funds after it went bankrupt.
He added that the PN was not even able to find a treasurer and had to delegate this role to deputy leader for party affairs Robert Arrigo.
‘Fearne contradicting himself’
Opposition deputy leader for parliamentary affairs David Agius accused Mr Fearne of contradicting himself.
“How can you say you want to increase parliamentary scrutiny while denying resources to the Opposition leader?” he asked.
Expressing disagreement with the 2020 financial plan, he said the gulf in resources was accentuated further by the fact that 26 Labour MPs were part of Cabinet while those who were not, had state resources at hand because of their appointment at the helm of State entities. The Opposition deputy leader said he had nothing against allocating resources also to all MPs.
Mr Agius denied claims that this money would end up covering salaries at the PN headquarters while noting that the only resource allocated to the Opposition leader was his driver.
“Democracy is not strengthened simply by increasing the size of Cabinet or changing the police commissioner,” he remarked.
“It is not easy for the government to accept to give more resources to the Opposition leader whose role is to criticize it. But the roles could switch in future” he added.
Opposition whip Robert Cutajar said government MPs were mixing up Adrian Delia’s role of party leader with his constitutional role of Opposition leader.
The debate will continue on Tuesday.