Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Harry Vassallo yesterday appealed to the government and opposition to refrain from turning the Malta Drydocks into an electoral football once again, during a meeting held yesterday at their Sliema offices to discuss the current state of the dockyards.

“All politicians of goodwill should look at the situation at the Drydocks with realism and propose measures to address the future of this enterprise. The Labour Party is fooling people saying that it can extend its lifeline by re-opening negotiations with the European Union, something that is plainly impossible.

The Nationalist Party seems intent on giving up on the enterprise and having it shut by year-end. Alternattiva is here to make its own proposals,” said Dr Vassallo.

AD spokesperson on Finance, the Economy and Tourism Edward Fenech said that “in its present set up it is almost certain that the Drydocks will not be able to survive without subsidies. Since subsidies can no longer be given after 2008, this would spell immediate closure. We believe that the Drydocks can only survive beyond 2008 if a few hundred employees are re-assigned to a separate business organisation that should be involved in the building of solar panels and photovoltaic panels.”

According to AD, the dockyard needs to diversify its work by buying apparatus to heat water and install photovoltaic panels so that it makes more money and stops eating away at public funds, and help people to save on electricity bills, and these initiatives need to be addressed immediately without further procrastination. “The dockyards’ skills are part of Malta’s capital and should not be wasted. In the 90s Labour had prepared a report which mentioned the use of photovoltaic panels so we don’t understand why they never implemented it,” added Mr Fenech.

When asked about the objection of Joseph Falzon, auditor to the Malta Environmental Planning Authority, to the publication of the Sant’Antnin Report, AD’s Spokesperson for Sustainable Development Carmel Cacopardo said: “We believe that the people have a right to see the report.”

Regarding Rene Rossignaud’s resignation from his post in AD and the Swieqi local council, Dr Vassallo stated that he first found out about his resignation through the local papers, that Mr Rossignaud had previously complained about the pressure he had been receiving from the Nationalist Party, and there seemed to be no other valid reason why he would leave AD.