This past week readers would have followed the debate in Parliament on the salaries of ministers and parliamentary secretaries

If readers are led to suppose and imagine, via some intelligent journalists, that 69 Members of Parliament slouch around in their uncomfortable chairs from 6pm to 9pm of every session, then they better wake up from their dream.

Nobody stays in Parliament like that, from a normal MP to a highly paid minister. This is the bare truth.

These are a few facts on the system adopted in our House of Representatives. If an MP is sick, he or she is marked as absent, and not excused. If you are away from the island and permission is obtained from the Whip, but you are not on government business, you are marked absent, not excused. If you are on MP duty within your constituency, then you are marked absent, not excused. If you are on a radio/TV programme, then you are marked absent, not excused. If you are on ministerial duties, such as dialogue meetings, then you are marked absent, not excused.

Contrary to what Minister Cristina was quoted as saying, an MP can listen in to the radio, 106.6 and absorb anyone’s contribution.

Why slouch in an armchair for three hours, when an MP can possibly rectify a social case within the constituency?

Am I more useful, as an MP, doing the street work, or staying put in the chair for three hours without talking, just listening?

This past weekend, for example, I had email exchanges with the Prime Minister on proposals and ideas for the next budget, with the vice prime minister on other things and with the Finance Minister on the ins and outs of government finance. Do I need to be present in Parliament to do so, or can I do this on a Sunday afternoon?

My take home pay cheque issued by the Central Bank of Malta is €1244.90 per month.

With the rental of my constituency office, the petrol expenses, the token sums I give to my assistants for their time in delivering various papers and so on, I can confirm that to me, Parliament is a loss-making situation. Never mind the hours I dedicate to the cause; that goes for free. I do it because I believe in being of a constant, daily service to my constituents and not as a form of making money from all angles.

I am not a government employee, but a self-employed, and the only MP as far as I know who employs hundreds of people. I am no cost to government but a very good contributor in the top scorer list.

This is unlike other MPs who have a government job, and as we today know, are paid their salary plus the MP wage. They are paid much better than me.

So why is there this eagerness for character assassination by certain quarters? Why are MPs presented in a negative way without providing the full situation, so that readers can make their own judgements?

The mind boggles.

Robert Arrigo is parliamentary assistant in the Finance Ministry