Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said today that his government will do its utmost to eradicate the precarious employment “plague”, adding that this issue is next in line to be tackled.

Speaking in Zabbar, Dr Muscat called on each Labour supporter to convince another to go out and vote, in a move reminiscent to former PN prime minister Lawrence Gonzi’s plea prior to the March 2013 general election.

Earlier this week, Dr Muscat said that the party was banking on its “soldiers of steel” to prove themselves and vote in the European Parliament elections.

Dr Muscat told the many supporters present that the government’s implementation of measures during the first year was to enhance the economy, and in turn the economy grew four times more than it did under a PN administration.

He said that the number of jobs created doubled, pointing out that nine jobs were created for each one person who did not have a job in 2013 opposed to the four jobs which were created for every one person who was out of work in 2012.

Dr Muscat recalled that the PN had said, back in 2008, that if international oil prices reduced it would reduce the energy tariffs but despite the oil prices having dropped, a PN government still did not reduce the tariffs.

“It is a Labour government who reduced the energy tariffs, as is evident from the letters consumers are receiving at their homes to compare what they paid before with now.”

In the first nine months in Gozo, he said that 312 new jobs were created while 404 persons started off a business,” he said.

Yesterday, the prime minister announced that works on the yacht marina in Gozo have started which will lead to jobs being created in the sister island.

Dr Muscat said that the Opposition has criticised the government for engaging individuals in the public sector but what it did not say is that six hundred persons were engaged in the health and education sectors with the aim of strengthening the sectors.

Dr Muscat said the fact that “PN leader Simon Busuttil’s proposal is to give me a yellow card instead of calling on the people to vote for him, only shows that he is cut out from reality and has nothing to say but be negative, despite saying that he would be positive during the MEP campaign”.

He took umbrage over the fact that the Opposition said that the government should not have called a press conference to announce the reduction in prices tied to fuel.

“When filling up your cars with petrol, remember one thing, that Dr Busuttil did not want you to benefit from this measure,” he said.

Dr Muscat further stated that what a PL government announces it implements unlike the PN, when it announced that a massive project would be developed at the former White Rocks Complex but everything fell through.

He said single mothers who are registering for work and found a job, their unemployment benefit they received before will not be removed immediately but they would still receive a portion of the benefit for three years.

Dr Muscat reiterated that minimum wage earners will also receive a financial top up, emphasising that those who have children will be given special focus.

This, he said, will give an incentive to people to go out and work and not opt to stay home and receive unemployment benefits.

He said that unemployed persons would have to take other job opportunities up and not remain applying for “inexistent” jobs.

Citing an example, he said that there are persons registering for work and who are waiting for a vacancy to arise as a petrol pump attendant.

“How many petrol pump attendant vacancies in actual fact do crop up,” he lamented.

Dr Muscat said that employers will pay an additional amount in social contributions for each of their employees. In turn, the government, he said, will be funding the entire cost of maternity leave, even in the private sector.

Prior to Dr Muscat’s speech, MEP candidate Charlon Gouder said that the PN leader wanted to give a yellow card to Dr Muscat but instead “we will give a red card to Simon Busuttil”, adding that all he has emerged with is negativity.

“We will give you (Dr Busuttil) a red card and if need be we will also suspend you for three games,” he said to the applause of those present.

MEP candidate Miriam Dalli meanwhile said that the PN had promised it would be positive in the MEP campaign, but despite its promise, we hardly saw anything positive unfold.

She said that the PN, prior to the election, said that it would be impossible for a Labour government to reduce the energy tariffs, implement a free childcare system, and increase students’ stipends.

“But we have done that and more,” she said, adding that the “government reduced the gas and petrol prices, a move which was also slammed by the Opposition”.

“The Opposition is failing to say that the price of petrol and gas is much cheaper then when they governed,” Dr Dalli said.

She said that a two cent increase made a difference for families but it obviously does not make a difference to Dr Busuttil, who pocketed one million euros in direct orders.

Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis said that when Dr Muscat took the helm of the Labour Party we changed direction, despite a number of supporters who did not understand the need for this direction but today have understood why.

He said that if the electorate did not want to see that the direction the PN was taking change, it would not have voted Labour and would have opted to vote PN once again.

The minister said that cruise liner tourism significantly increased in the first three months of this year compared to the same period last year.

Turning to the Individual Investor Programme, he said that the government managed, after serious consideration, to get the green light from the EU, despite the Opposition’s attempts to put spokes in the wheels.