A scheme offering cheap computers to needy families is in the offing, utilising old model computers which have a limited memory, some of which are also recycled, MLP IT spokesman Leo Brincat said yesterday.

These details were not being made public, he said, and it was not generally known either that pressure was being put on companies which have been awarded a heavy tender by the government to put these computers at the government’s disposal soonest because IT Minister Austin Gatt is said to be in need of meeting electoral deadlines.

Mr Brincat said there was nothing against helping people in need in the information technology sector but as with the internet broadband scheme everything was being done in a hurry as part of a politically opportune plan with purely electoral aims in mind.

No facts twisting by the minister would dishearten the Labour Party, Mr Brincat said. The internet broadband scheme was not socially just because it was not means tested, was being offered on a first come first served basis and not addressed to those most in need.

Those reading Dr Gatt’s counter statements should note that his aim was to depict the Labour Party as anti-technology, but this was far from true, Mr Brincat said.

In a statement, the Investment, Industry and Information Technology Ministry said the Labour Party has clearly shown that it is against needy families and NGOs having access to technology.

The ministry said that in its statement, the Labour Party "revealed" what it believed to have been the ministry's secret and deceiving plan to sell recycled computers at a nominal price to financially disadvantaged families.

The ministry added that like every other organisation on the national IT consultative council, the Labour Party had a copy of the public document in which the so-called "revelation" had been made, but the MLP said the government had copied the idea from the Opposition's own plans.

The Labour Party has lost all its social credibility, said the ministry, adding that it has clearly shown its state of panic when faced with ICT-related matters.

This is a confirmation of what the government had said last May, when the MLP spoke vociferously against the PC leasing framework, the ministry said.

It added that the Labour Party's intention was to hinder the PC leasing process, so that the computer refurbishment process would not take place. The Labour Party's "revelation" had been made public more than six months ago.