Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday announced the government’s plans to set up, in 2008, a system whereby general practitioners, from the comfort of their own private clinic, will be able to access, through the internet, their patients’ medical records stored at Mater Dei hospital.

Dr Gonzi was speaking at a public dialogue meeting at the Nationalist Party (PN) band club in Mosta.

Education, Employment and Youth Minister Louis Galea and PN candidate Beppe Fenech Adami also participated in the dialogue meeting.

The Prime Minister said that the government has been working to help make Maltese and Gozitan families stronger in the past three years.

He rebutted claims made by the opposition that Budget 2008 who stated that it was an election budget.

This year’s budget is “a clear result of what we managed to achieve during the past three and a half years – the best is yet to come,” said Dr Gonzi.

He stated that, in this year’s budget, he announced various measures and agreements that will improve the working conditions of members of the Armed Forces of Malta, the Police Force, doctors and nurses.

“This budget addressed the wishes and aspirations of the Maltese and Gozitan people who told us what they wanted during the pre-budget consultation period,” he said.

Everything was out in the open – in July the government published its pre-budget document that informed the people what the government had in mind, explained the prime minister.

Dr Gonzi said that, during the past three years, the opposition always gave the government the wrong advice.

He spoke about his recent onsite visit to Ricasoli, the site where SmartCity project will be based, and said that had the government followed Opposition Leader Alfred Sant’s advice because Dr Sant had described it as “speculation”, then at least 6,000 jobs would not be in the pipeline, he added.

Another piece of wrong advice, that was not taken up, was to devaluate the Maltese lira by 10 per cent. “Do you know what this means? This means that every Lm1 coin that you have will be worth 90c,” explained Dr Gonzi.

This year’s budget will put more money in people’s pockets, said the prime minister.

Referring to the new measures introduced in this year’s budget, Dr Gonzi said that a family with three or more children with an annual income of around Lm3,500 will receive Lm600 more in children’s allowance as opposed to last year.

“The budget introduced measures that acknowledges and recognises how important the upbringing of children is to us,” he said.

The budget also gave elderly people the right to continue working after the age of 61 without losing out on their pension, added Dr Gonzi.

This year the government eased the burden of income tax on families and on young couples who are first-time property buyers.

However, the prime minister pointed out that while a lot has been achieved, a lot more still needs to be done.

“At the moment, especially in the health sector, we are going through a very delicate situation with the migration of St Luke’s Hospital to Mater Dei,” said Dr Gonzi.

The Prime Minister explained that the plan was set in motion years ago to ensure that the Maltese had the best health care service.

He went on to say that the time has come to focus on the people, now that the medical institutions are state-of-the-art.

He added that there are certain situations that still need to be addressed.

“It was not easy to get here – but we did it and we will keep on working to improve your lives,” he said.

Dr Gonzi then spoke about the euro changeover process.

“The fact that Malta will start using the euro very soon is a certification that Malta is a good place for foreign investment,” he said.

Even though this might not mean much for the man in the street, Dr Gonzi explained that the introduction of the euro will bring more investment to the country, which in turn will create more jobs.

“This is the only reason why we wanted the euro – it will create more jobs for the country,” he said.

Dr Gonzi quoted a report issued by the United Nations that gave Malta a very high ranking, in the first 10 places, of countries that attracted a high rate of foreign investment.

“Foreign companies and businesses invest in Malta because they know that they will get their money back,” he said.

The best is yet to come – the true challenge the government now has is to ensure that there will be enough qualified Maltese and Gozitans for the job opportunities, explained Dr Gonzi.