A museum dedicated to former Labour Prime Minister Dom Mintoff is being considered to form part of the new €80 million Parliament building at the entrance of Valletta – whether or not this will be used as a new venue for the House of Representatives.

Prior to the election, the Labour Party continuously criticised the validity of having a new Parliament building, with leader Joseph Muscat going as far as saying that, if elected to government, the Labour Party would invite Dr Lawrence Gonzi to officially open it.

Now, after winning the election, the new Labour government is finding fault with the building’s small size and no decision has as yet been taken on what to do.

Infrastructure Minister Joe Mizzi has said that the government still plans to use the new Parliament building for the function it is being constructed for, but he complained of lack of office space. The Cabinet is made up of 23 ministers and parliamentary secretaries, but it has space for only 16 such offices.

Mr Mizzi said that experts must be involved to come up with a solution, but since then the idea that Parliament remains at the Presidential Palace has been floated by none other than Carmelo Abela, the PL’s whip. He said that if the new building is found not to be adequate to accommodate the House of Representatives, this should stay at the Palace and an alternative use found for the Renzo Piano building.

Last week, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Anglu Farrugia, said that the government was in talks with architect Renzo Piano on the way forward.

One idea that is being considered by the government is to use the Renzo Piano building, at least in part, as a museum dedicated to former Labour Prime Minister Dom Mintoff, who died last year.

Whether or not Parliament does eventually move there, some space in the building could be dedicated to the man who was elected 14 times for a total of more than 52 years in Parliament.

The idea is gathering momentum even because the building is situated in what is known as Freedom Square, with the 31 March 1979 departure of British forces from Malta – Freedom Day – considered to be Mintoff’s greatest achievement while Prime Minister.