Speaker Anġlu Farrugia said on Wednesday that he will be in contact with the government and the opposition with a view to resuming a meeting of the Standards Committee to discuss an alleged ethics breach by Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar.

The Speaker walked out of the committee meeting on Tuesday afternoon amid disagreement over who should be called to testify. While the government MPs wanted to hear Inland Revenue Commissioner Melvyn Gaerty alone for the first sitting, the opposition members said Charles Farrugia, Cutajar’s aide, should be brought before the committee too.  

In a declaration in the House, the Speaker said he had suspended the committee meeting after having tried to reach an agreement on who should testify. But instead of agreement, the members shouted over each other and calls for order were ignored.

The Speaker said he had earlier voted for Rosianne Cutajar’s conduct to be investigated further in line with the practice for discussion to continue when there was a tie in voting.  

The vote was over an Opposition motion calling for sanctions against Cutajar, who allegedly failed to declare income from a commission on a property deal involving Yorgen Fenech.

The Speaker regretted that after the sitting was disrupted by disorder the members had not sought a resumption, but instead a quorum was made in the plenary sitting, making a resumption of the committee meeting impossible.