But that, while rendering the situation, in a certain sense of the word, misinterprets the whole issue and makes MPs look very grasping and money-minded. Which is not the case when one understands the facts.

The issue was brought up in last Tuesday’s House Business Committee of the House of Representatives. But it was dealt with too obliquely and the debate was wound up with the statement that it would be discussed in the Welfare Committee, another parliamentary committee from which the press is, wrongly, barred.

The truth is that Maltese MPs are considered to be part-timers and are paid as such. “I get Lm380 a month,” grumbled an MP last week.

Up to now, those MPs who work with the government have to give up their job for the duration, but this is likely to change. While people in the professional classes, like doctors or lawyers, continue practising when they are elected to Parliament, nurses and others working in the civil service have to resign when they become MPs.

But this will be corrected if the Opposition agrees as this will require a change in the Constitution, Leader of the House Tonio Borg told the House Business Committee last week.

Joe Mizzi, for the Opposition, raised the issue related to the period between the dissolution of Parliament and the swearing in of the new legislature. Sometimes months pass and MPs are not paid for that period he said.

Mr Mizzi also added, and this was confirmed by MPs from the government side, that this has a negative effect on the expenditure of MPs.

“I have a Lm900 phone bill for that period,” an MP told this newspaper. His main complaint seemed to be that while MPs in a dissolved Parliament are not paid, ministers still keep their teams with them during this period and therefore incur no financial disadvantage.