The government is quite right in deciding to tackle the most urgent and non-postponable issues right at the beginning of a new legislature.

One of these issues, the dockyard issue, is certainly urgent and cannot be postponed: the derogation on State aid given by the EU runs out at the end of this year; the reform process put in place by the Gonzi 2003-2008 administration did not work, as the dockyard plunged more and more into the red and production levels never got anywhere approaching the required levels. There is simply no point now to hold inquiries, investigations and carry out in-depth surgery, as the patient has consistently refused to get better and anything else is now preferable. Rather than letting it die a slow death, this is death by euthanasia.

In a way, it is very strange: in a Malta that otherwise is doing well and is learning new skills and new technologies, the dockyard is practically the only industry that is losing money hand over fist. Yet the dockyard always had, still has, people with extremely good skills, good workers, excellent ship repairers.

In the coming national discussion – for discussion there must be – the country must be informed how much the country, nay each taxpayer, has paid so far, as money lent but never repaid was turned into subsidies, funds were cannibalised, and so on, and all this so that “tat-tarzna” do not run amok.

This is not to say that investigations must not take place even now, especially regarding that failure that seems to have been the Fairmount contract. Any industry, even under the shadow of bankruptcy, investigates such failures and takes corrective action.

The General Workers Union has called for two decisions to be taken: a Task Force must be set up and the Appledore Report must be followed.

The Appledore Reform, which is over 10 years old, was drawn up at a time when the situation was vastly different. Even then, some who are now pleading on its behalf opposed it.

As regards the Task Force idea, now supported by Joe Muscat as well, the gravity of the situation makes it an unwieldy and cumbersome tool. The situation, given the EU commitment, is now so far gone there is simply no time to sit and hold discussions. This also goes for what has been the general thrust of the complaints – that the government has not consulted anyone but just came out with its decision: there is simply no time to hold discussions.

As can be seen by anybody who reads the papers and listens to the radio and TV stations, the situation at the dockyard has always been three- or four-cornered: the workers, the union, the management, the government with the government, that is you and me picking up the tab. Listen to Dun Ang Seychell, for ever pro-Labour and pro-Left, canonize the workers (Mhux tort tal-haddiema [It’s not the workers’ fault] – Monday’s l-orizzont). Whose fault was it then that work practices were never allowed to be changed? Your fault? Or mine?

It must also be said that nothing was done inside the dockyard to promote efficiency because the workers, in their majority, were expecting a Labour win in the general election, and also because Alfred Sant, foolishly, let it be perceived that a Labour win would avert this trauma, even though Joe Muscat is probably thanking his lucky stars he is not in the hot seat that Gonzi occupies right now.

This is not the time to point fingers and lay charges. It makes sense for the government to issue another early retirement scheme, this time to include all those who want to leave and perhaps start afresh.

It makes sense for parts of the dockyard to be hived off – such as the superyachts part and the Manoel Island yacht yard – and that the country gets back part of the dockyard’s assets such as Dock Number One and Boiler Wharf. The money so gained may be profitably used to invest in more modern technology.

Equally, the dockyard may profitably invest in EU funds and programmes just like the rest of Malta is doing.

But the main issue, about which thankfully there now seems to be some sort of shaky bipartisan agreement, is that privatisation and privatisation of the dockyard is the way forward. For the government to choose that option must mean it has been approached over the past years by would-be buyers and knows what their conditions would be.

Joe Muscat was wisely told by Pierre Portelli that this is his first real test, and unwisely said that he hopes this will not be another Mid-Med sale. What does he have to say about that deal? The present writer, at the time, wrote far more than anyone else about that deal and had more to say against than in favour. But today, with hindsight, one can safely conclude that considering what HSBC brought to Malta – a world brand, instant recognition, access to top level practices, the elimination of so many years of inbred incestuous styles of management, and so on – that today we should have been the ones to pay HSBC to come here, rather than the other way round.

It simply does not follow that the privatisation of the dockyard will lead it to resemble the dreadful Romanian cheap labour or similar examples. Even next door to the dockyard itself, right on its doorstep in Malta, there are private dockyards that flourish at the expense of the dockyard, sometimes staffed by ex-dockyard people. The same happened in Germany, and even in Poland where the holy of holies of the Gdansk dockyard had to close for much the same reasons and the Sant-like Kaczynski government has to pay back the State aids it gave to the dockyard.

Of course, it will be in its own way a culture shock, almost a trauma, but a salutary one at that for it will mean the end of the three- or four-cornered game of pointing of fingers at last.