Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said today that the BWSC plant will be fired by gas following an agreement reached between the government and Shanghai Electric and as a result the government would have implemented another pledge, getting rid of the 'cancer factory'. He said that the new power station will be operated by gas as well and therefore Malta will have two powers stations which will be operated by gas.

Currently, the plant operates on heavy fuel oil. Dr Muscat also announced that the government's next step is to close down what he described as an 'environmental plague', the Marsa power station, and this, he said, will happen in the coming months.

Turning to the Opposition leader, he said that Dr Busuttil asked for an assurance that tariffs for industry would be reduced.

"My assurance to Dr Busuttil is that in the same way energy tariffs were reduced for households, industry will benefit from the reductions as well."

The government will be funding the reduction in electricity tariffs through a number of measures which would not entail more taxes, he pointed out.

Dr Muscat said that "our movement's positivity excels in the way we are dealing with our energy plan but the way Dr Busuttil speaks shows he has not understood anything".

He explained: "First and foremost, or main aim was to help Enemalta get back on its feet, since the corporation would have eventually sank if things kept moving the way they were, which would also have seen its workers go down with it due to all its heavy debts.

"But that would not have been it; banks would have been hit hard as a result as well," Dr Muscat explained.

"We are not here to engage in scaremongering campaigns but to find solutions to problems and today, as a result of our hard work, Enemalta is back on its feet," he said.

He also announced that in the coming weeks, €300 million will be invested in Enemalta. He said this government had reduced the corporation's debts by €20 million.

Dr Muscat highlighted that the government coordinated a strategy to give time to those individuals who stole electricity to pay back their dues along with a fine, and police also investigated who was behind it and they were arrested and charged.

He said that the government discovered that no permits were ever issued regarding the interconnecting cable linking our country to Italy.

"We are trying to get the relevant permits in hand so that the interconnector project can go through as planned," he said.

"Sicily hardly has enough electricity to provide itself let alone provide another country with electricity."

On Armier's boat houses, he said that "by giving the boathouse owners an electricity metre does in no way mean that their position is being regularized either".

"The choice the electorate did one and the half years ago was between positivity and negativity, the movement which is in government is more positive but the party the electorate refused to elect is turning out to be more negative than ever," he highlighted.

"This week we implemented the next phase of another pledge, a pilot project, where fourth formers were given computer tablets.

"Teachers have been asked to give their feedback on how the system worked during the pilot project so in the future no problems crop up; this is how things should be done; the rollout of tablets will follow," he said.

Dr Muscat also pointed out that the new Mcast campus was inaugurated in Gozo.

These are all issues which show this government is implementing its pledges, as it did with free childcare and the reduction of energy tariffs for households.

Dr Muscat also referred to sensational media reports "which alarm people for nothing".

"When we had a suspicion of Ebola, we called a news conference and invited all the media," he said.

Dr Muscat also reiterated that people who do not want to work and are lazy will not be protected by the government, once again referring to those individuals who refuse to work and prefer to stay at home and receive social benefits.