A childcare centre for MPs and parliament staff should be operational by the end of this year, the Office of the Speaker has confirmed.

The facility will be located in Beltissebħ and works and recruitment for staff is being coordinated and managed by the Education Ministry.

“This is one of a series of measures to make parliamentary work more family-friendly. By giving the necessary attention to the family as the fundamental basis of our society, we are helping our MPs contribute even more to the people they were elected to represent,” the Speaker told Times of Malta.

Plans for a childcare centre for MPs originally kicked off in 2018, after parliament shifted Wednesday sessions to start two hours earlier, allowing MPs to get back home to their families at a “decent time”.

The facility was projected to be up and running by the end of last year but the Speaker’s Office said the process took longer than expected.

The childcare centre’s opening hours, the age range and the number of children it will be able to accommodate are still unclear.

In his Sette Giugno speech last week, Speaker Anġlu Farrugia said it is time to discuss full-time MPs, shorter speech times in parliament and suggested further assistance and better equipment to help parliamentary groups fulfil their mandate more effectively.

He also spoke about the need to revise parliament’s meeting times to better accommodate the MPs’ professional, family, personal and academic needs.

Parliament’s family-friendly shortcomings often shoot to the top of the agenda when MPs decide to bring their children to a sitting.

Ministers Julia Farrugia Portelli, Miriam Dalli and the prime minister himself all brought their children to parliament and, in the first two months of the new legislature, newcomer Nationalist MP Julie Zahra made headlines when her four-year-old daughter was seen on television sitting behind PN whip Robert Cutajar as he delivered a speech.

Zahra admitted that juggling her roles of motherhood and an MP was challenging when she had no one to mind her daughter.

In the first week of the new legislature, the opposition presented nine proposals to help parliament become more family-friendly and the PN whip said a childcare facility was among the top priorities.

“As an opposition, we are happy to see the speaker giving this issue the importance it deserves and we look forward to the new service to be available to all parliament staff, including to the police,” Cutajar said, noting that, in the first two months of the new legislature, three opposition MPs have already brought their children to parliament.

“However, we would like the Speaker to consult the government and the opposition parliamentary groups to understand how to better suit the MPs’ needs. Also, as the opposition, we believe the facility would be better suited if it were located inside the parliament building.”

Questions were also sent to government whip Andy Ellul.

The issue of MPs taking children to parliament and demanding better family-friendly measures is not unique to Malta.

In 2018, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern took her three-month old baby to the UN General Assembly, in New York. That same year, Jo Swinson became the first British MP to take her baby into a session of the House of Commons.

Swedish MEP Jytte Guteland took her toddler to the EU parliament in 2017 and Australian Senator Larissa Waters even breastfed her baby during a vote in parliament in 2017.

The sight of children walking into parliaments have been controversial in many countries.

In Spain, MP Carolina Bescansa was criticised for breastfeeding her baby during parliament and, in Australia, senator Sarah Hanson-Young’s daughter tagged along with her to parliament, only to be escorted out by a parliament official slightly later on the speaker’s orders.

But, in most countries, controversy prompted parliaments to set up childcare facilities.

The UK parliament has an on-site nursery for the staff of the House of Commons, including MPs and journalists.

Even though the European Parliament in Strasbourg has a small playroom, the more sophisticated childcare facilities are situated in Brussels, outside the parliament but within walking distance.