PN accuses government of poor planning as power disruptions continue
The Nationalist Party has accused the government of failing to adequately plan investment in the electricity network and called on Energy Minister Miriam Dalli to shoulder responsibility and resign.
Addressing a news conference, Shadow Minister for Energy Mark Anthony Sammut said that while the national crisis began over a week ago, some localities had already been experiencing voltage fluctuations before the widespread disruptions.
Sammut said problems remained in a number of areas over the past two days, including Birkirkara, Qormi, St Paul’s Bay, the Cottonera area, Kalkara, Rabat, Ħamrun, Marsa, Gudja, Għaxaq, Luqa and Valletta, adding that some streets were still without a stable electricity supply on Monday morning.
He identified Nazju Ellul Street in Gżira as one location where, he said, some households had been experiencing repeated outages since the previous Tuesday, with electricity returning only intermittently. He also pointed to Ġorġ Borg Olivier Street in St Julian’s, where he said residents had gone for more than a week with only brief periods of restored supply, and Sardinella Street in Fgura, where he said electricity problems had persisted since the previous week’s Thursday.
Sammut criticised comments previously made by Energy Minister Miriam Dalli, saying she had dismissed the Opposition’s description of the situation as a crisis.
He argued that the impact extended beyond inconvenience, citing examples of vulnerable residents affected by prolonged power cuts. Sammut referred to a dialysis patient who, he said, had been forced to manually operate home dialysis equipment for three days because of the lack of electricity. He also mentioned people relying on sleep apnoea machines who, he said, were anxious each night over the possibility of losing power, as well as elderly residents trapped in upper-floor apartments after lifts stopped working during the outages.
Shadow Minister for the Economy Darren Carabott said the minister also had to answer for the economic consequences of the disruptions, arguing that businesses and workers had suffered significant losses.
Carabott said power cuts left businesses unable to operate machinery, without internet access and facing potential damage to equipment, while employers continued to incur fixed costs such as rent and wages despite the interruptions.
He attributed the situation to what he described as inadequate planning and insufficient investment in the electricity distribution network, arguing that the government had been reacting to crises rather than preventing them.
Questioning why the country continued to experience similar disruptions every summer, Carabott said the repeated outages resulted in lost productivity and interrupted commercial activity.
He added that business organisations, including the Malta Chamber, the Chamber of SMEs and the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA), had also warned that power cuts effectively brought economic activity to a standstill, with businesses forced to wait until electricity was restored before resuming operations.
The Nationalist Party, apart from seeking the resignation of Minister Dalli, is also calling for automatic compensation, imposed by the Regulator, for families and businesses that suffer interruptions to the service; compensation for Enemalta workers who are working under considerable pressure to resolve this crisia, a full account of all the faults and breakdowns that occurred; an account of how the €140 million was spent in investment in the loast years, which Minister Dalli is refusing to break down in Parliament; full transparency regarding Enemalta, including the Network Development Plan, the latest audited accounts and regarding what happened to the €60 million linked to carbon credits that had been found to be missing.
The two Shadow Ministers explained that, during the House Business Committee, the PN also requested that the Motion of No Confidence in Minister Miriam Dalli, tabled by the Opposition, be debated before Parliament adjourns for the summer recess.
A motion of no confidence in itself raises a direct issue of political responsibility and cannot be left pending for several months. Parliament cannot simply adjourn for the summer without debating this issue, leaving the public to face another two months of heat and fear of further power cuts without anyone being held responsible, the PN speakers said.
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