The prime minister will be deciding whether or not to publish the entire Egrant inquiry report once a court hands down a decision on whether the Opposition should have a copy.

In reply to questions by the Times of Malta on Wednesday, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that despite having promised to publish the report, he had refrained from doing so out of respect towards the proceedings in court instituted by the leader of the opposition.

“I will keep my promises but I think that out of respect towards the courts, now that there is a case in court, which I did not open, and which I am to understand will be decided in the coming weeks, I think that out of courtesy and respect towards the institutions, I will await the court decision.

“I will then see what this will say and then I will decide,” Dr Muscat said.

Pressed further to say whether he would still go ahead and publish the entire report, as per his promise in July, even if the court decides to not give Dr Delia access to the entire report, the Prime Minister insisted that he would go through the court judgement, review the reasons behind the decision and then decide.

“I have no intention to not publish what is in the inquiry. Had I known what the conclusions would say, I would have stopped there as that would have been enough but I made the pledge before I knew what the conclusions of the report were,” he went on.

The court is expected to decide on whether to provide the Opposition with a copy of the report on May 14.