The buzzword chosen for this year’s budget is ‘quality’. Quality this and quality that. Rest assured that this is only a buzzword and it will remain so by the end of next year.

All Finance Minister Clyde Caruana has done is to add icing to a stale cake, ketchup to mouldy chips and glitter to a very sad situation.

The budget speech was full of bluff, wrong assumptions and lacking in direction. 

The budget lacks so much in quality that the government had to resort to its usual cheating tactics by abusively airing illegal propaganda spots on the national TV station and to sending messages on all the computer screens in government departments.

How sad. This is a Putin style of management.

What sort of quality will the budget deliver to our ailing hospitals, particularly to the hospital for mental health, to our crippling education system and our schools – not one new school in sight – and to the nerve-wracking jampacked roads?

What sort of quality will this lacklustre budget add to our sorrowful environment.

How will this budget solve overpopulation and overtourism?

How will it enlighten the Planning Authority to change its attitude and start planning?

How will it solve overdevelopment?

And, above all, how will it attract qualitative jobs that will encourage youngsters to pursue their careers in our beautiful islands?

This budget will keep us yawning, dreaming and hoping and it is a guarantee that an improvement in quality will not take place.

In my role as a mayor, I am particularly interested in how this budget will lead to improved conditions for local councils.

How will this budget help local councils to improve the quality of services offered and create an improvement in the locality’s environment? Actually, were local councils mentioned at all?

The budget proves once again how this pseudo-socialist government does not support local councils.

Year after year, the autonomy of local councils has been severely curtailed, responsibilities have been removed and their functionality undermined. 

All Finance Minister Clyde Caruana has done is to add icing to a stale cake- Noel Muscat

The increase in the funding allocated to local councils is a pittance when compared to their requirements. Local councils are already struggling to survive. As things stand, next year they will be on their knees. 

The costs have shot up for local councils. The cost of every service they purchase, be it professional services, street cleaning services, lighting repairs and maintenance, road and pavement repairs, signs and markings, upkeep of parks and gardens has surged.

Every tender that we issue is costing 25% to 75% more than the previous one.

It is bad enough that we must continually beg for assistance be it for road construction, maintenance of pavements, electrical repairs and capital projects. 

It is totally unacceptable that we will have to be made to cut down on the services that we already offer. 

If the Swieqi local council will not receive at least an additional €200,000 in its annual allocation, we will simply not be able to make ends meet.

And it appears that we shall not even be receiving 10% of this requirement.

We might as well shut our doors  but we are determined not to let this happen. We are determined to fight for residents’ rights, to increase services offered and to improve their quality.

We are determined to do our job properly and efficiently 

We mean business and the government must listen.

Noel Muscat is the mayor of Swieqi.