Rural Affairs and Environment Minister George Pullicino seemed to be minimally interested in the fisheries sector, his shadow on the opposition benches, Noel Farrugia said. Even the president of the National Fisheries Cooperative, Anthony Carabott, had made that point on One News, he added.

Mr Carabott, Mr Farrugia said, had even proved the opposition right in its statement deploring the fact that the cooperative, which represents 95 per cent of Maltese and Gozitan fishermen who fished for swordfish, had not been informed about, or invited, by the ministry to the preparatory meeting of the ICCAT in Brussels last month. The meeting was to discuss management measures for swordfish fishing in EU waters. The Nationalist government denied the MLP statement.

Mr Farrugia said that was not all. The government had also denied another MLP statement about Maltese fishermen not having any protection because of the government’s apathy. The government had not done anything about drift nets used by foreign fishermen, and had also denied that anything could be done. Mr Carabott confirmed this, and accused the government of being apathetic.