The new Home Affairs minister, Carmelo Abela, said this evening the way forward is to recruit (presumably young) new policemen.

The minister was replying to a parliamentary question by PN MP Jason Azzopardi.

Without making things too explicit, his statement was a not very indirect criticism of his predecessor Manwel Mallia.

In fact, in a table attached to the reply, the minister said two former policemen who had been recruited as reserve policemen were between 70 and 80 years old. 63 were between 55 and 64 years old, 45 between 45 and 54 years old, and 11 between 65 and 69 years old.