After admitting that the public transport he was running has lost €7 million in three months, Transport Minister Joe Mizzi has been trying to hide facts and evade his responsibility for the burden he placed on taxpayers, PN transport spokesman Toni Bezzina said.

The burden was four times as heavy as the taxpayer was paying in a full year to the private company which had been running the service, he added.

The last budget had voted €10 million for public transport but at the rate of losses being reported it is clear that vote will be far from what will actually be needed. Mr Mizzi had been very voluble when he took over the service but since then he has gone mum.

Mr Bezzina said Mr Mizzi should be transparent and say what he thought the taxpayer would have to pay for the public transport service this year, what amount of subsidy was being requested by the two companies which have shown an interest to run the service, and what fares were being proposed.

Mr Mizzi should also explain why bus maintenance is deteriorating, why was the last service on some routes eliminated, what was he doing to enable the disabled, parents with children and elderly persons to use the buses being hired, why was he not putting on more buses on routes which needed it, and why had he removed almost all services operated during the night on Fridays and Saturdays?