At the height of public outrage about poor traffic management in Malta, our own Minister of Transport Joe Mizzi has the temerity to go to Luxembourg to speak about “intelligent transport systems”.

None of his advisers – in this day and age when ministers are employing consultants costing the country thousands of euros, I’m sure Mizzi has a few – had the courage to let him know that a press release like the one issued this morning via the Department of Information will only serve to instil more anger among drivers.

Because a minister embroiled in Malta’s largest ever traffic crisis should not go abroad and try to find solutions for others – when he cannot find solutions for Malta.

What’s more, when day after day drivers have to face endless hours on the road to arrive at their destination he dismisses the situation lightly. It would be interesting to know how much this is costing the country’s economy, given that many workers are arriving late at the office or shop-floor.

Even Prime Minister Joseph Muscat seems to have lost faith in Mr Mizzi. When the Opposition demanded that Parliament discusses the traffic crisis, the government had no qualms in accepting to hold the debate on the same day, knowing full well that Mr Mizzi was not available to contribute to the discussion. That a government accepted a call for a debate proposed by the opposition was an unprecedented move, as Speaker Anglu Farrugia confirmed, but it seems that the government preferred not to have Mr Mizzi in the House.

So Parliament ended up holding a three-hour debate on traffic without the minister responsible for the sector being present. If this is not a vote of no confidence in the minister by his own government, I do not know what is.

As I look outside my office window and once again see the Regional Road clogged with traffic at 2pm – which is certainly not a peak hour for traffic – I look forward to what intelligent transport systems Mr Mizzi is planning to use to resolve the growing traffic problems.

With roadworks, under his watch, taking much longer than planned (the Coast Road is just one example), I cannot even start to imagine what will happen if and when the Kappara roundabout project gets under way. And this is just one part of Malta we’re talking about – traffic has become the hottest topic of conversation because drivers are getting stuck all over the country.

This situation must be partly blamed on our public transport. Mr Mizzi was among the most vocal when, under a Nationalist government, the public transport service started to be operated by Arriva. His criticism of the new system had no limits, and when he was appointed minister, he ultimately led Arriva to the door to bring in a Spanish company which, incredibly, has made matters worse. Minister Mizzi has failed to resolve the public transport system he accused Austin Gatt so much about.

I am sure that drivers are spending more money on petrol and diesel than they used to in the past, given the time they spend inching their way from point A to point B. (Not to mention the environmental damage all this is causing). Maybe on Monday the government will try to ease the pressure by announcing a reduction in the price of fuel. But it will have to be a sizeable cut to make an impact, given that Maltese drivers have been paying much more than they should considering the hefty drop in the price of oil.

But that's another story. What drivers now want is to see what intelligent transport systems Mr Mizzi will come up with.