Leo Brincat, MLP spokesman for foreign affairs and information technology, said there had been two serious shortcomings in the last two months, on the part of the Information Technology Ministry and the National Statistics Office for Eurostat statistics about the use of the internet in Malta.

The Eurostat report about Young Europeans Through Statistics 44/2007 of last 23 March showed that over the past year Malta had one of the lowest rates of all EU countries in the use of the internet by young people aged between 16 and 24, while young people of the same age had high computer skills.

Mr Brincat said he had referred to this in the financial estimates debate weeks ago, but Minister Austin Gatt was not even aware of all this in spite of months-old EU statistics.

Then, last week, Eurostat figures about internet usage during 2007 in households and individually, referred only to statistics of the “EU27 ‘without Malta’”.

This not only required a clear explanation from Dr Gatt and the NSO, but contrasted sharply with the government’s efforts to project Malta as a centre of excellence in information technology, on which there should be a national consensus.