Speaking in Fgura, Dr Gonzi said this confirmed that the employment situation is better than that in 1997 when there was a Labour government.

Dr Gonzi said that between January and April this year, the drydocks had reached its budgetary targets, a large step forward for the company. If there had not been some difficulties earlier in the year, the drydocks would have even managed a profit.

He said that in the past year the government had allocated Lm300 million to the company. This had meant that the country’s deficit had risen to nine per cent of the GDP. The people now expected that drydocks workers do their bit, as the majority were doing.

When he spoke in Sliema late on Tuesday, Dr Gonzi said that the choice of Nationalist Party candidates in the 12 June EP election will be one in favour of concrete proposals to safeguard the environment.

Dr Gonzi said that the Maltese people should choose the best five candidates in the election: those candidates who will be able to make the most of the opportunities offered by the EU for Malta’s environment to be improved.

The PN was presenting the best candidates in this regard, he said.

The Prime Minister referred to the PN’s election manifesto, in which it committed itself to give great priority to the safeguarding of the environment.

The environment was an important factor in our way of life and makes a considerable difference to its quality. This area presented a great challenge to all the Maltese, and the EU can help us with this.

One of these challenges was how domestic and industrial waste should be treated. The re-filling of unused quarries with waste generated by the building industry was a project that had been started a few years ago and in the next few days, government will be announcing initiatives to be taken with regard to domestic waste.