Let’s talk about Christmas and the New Year festivities that bring cheer and a good atmosphere around us.

We have had quite a bumpy year, with this crisis that hit the world in the face. So, nearing the end of the year, one tends to look for more comfort within the walls of a family Christmas.

As to the New Year, never would the words of wishing one and all a happy New Year be more meaningful. We look forward to a new year, hoping that all the woes will go away. With optimism, we hope all will go away, and start afresh. Reality is not that however. The first week of January will be a continuation of December and we must brace ourselves for a few more months of crisis before the downward trend will finally stop.

Then there will be signs of recovery. The recovery is expected to be a slow one, and my reading is that it will take a few years for us to get back on the road we had taken in 2007 and 2008. However, all the predictions have been reduced to tatters and anybody knowing exactly what’s going to happen should visit a casino. It’s anybody’s guess, and anything can happen. The world is on a fragile line, thus the steps forward must be calculated, well planned and thought out.

Our priority is the jobs that have taken a fall in the past year, but which are more likely to stabilise in the new year. In parliament recently, I did mention the fact that there are still thousands of persons working here in Malta who are not regular on the books of the employer, nor at ETC. The vast majority are foreigners who, I think, must be regulated.

Foreigners should register at the council of their place of stay, register their trade, employment and the hiring of their premises. It’s high time the government has a true picture of what is going around us.

Tax and NI contributions should then be checked, and regular employment and competition on a fair playing field restored. On a government side, we will know the amounts of money we do not get in tax and contributions, but will probably find out how much we, as a government, thus the taxpayer, forks out in free services.

My worry is compounded on the fact that most foreigners came to Malta at a young age, and are slowly creeping up towards retirement, which poses the question of who is going to pay a pension to them? Will these foreigners return to their native land? Will their children stay here, and get education at a government school?

So many questions that in years of affluence, good jobs and the fast economy, nobody says anything about. However, in days of job seeking, overtime and extra part time work, these foreigners are extra. Acting to protect jobs and Maltese employment, thus the values of what make us, as a Nationalist Party, is, to me, vital.

May God bless all the readers and their families, my thanks to the editor for his patience and work, and may we really look forward to a better year.

Robert Arrigo is a Nationalist MP