An abrupt end to this legislature – if the budget to be presented shortly by the government is not approved by the House of Representatives if Għaxaq MP Franco Debono puts money where his mouth is – will mean that a lot of hard work will be lost.

This is because we are running the risk that a number of bills that are currently before the House or waiting to be discussed will not be passed before Parliament is dissolved. And so this would mean that much of the work that has been carried out in this term will be lost.

Therefore, if the budget is not approved, much-awaited legislation such as that concerning IVF and cohabitation will be shelved until after the election. By then, priorities might change and there is no guarantee that the IVF and cohabitation bills, as they are being put forward today, will be submitted then. If they are submitted, that is.

The IVF bill was supposed to have started to be debated last Monday, but there was no discussion at all during the past week and there is still no clear idea when this will be held. The cohabitation bill is also on the agenda but, here again, no date has been fixed for the debate.

There is a good chance that these two important bills – to regularise in-vitro fertilisation with the idea to protect embryos and to regularise cohabitation – will not make it home before the budget is presented and debated. The budget will take precedence over anything else in our Parliament, and so if a political crisis erupts on what had been described as the mother of money bills then there will be no other option for the Prime Minister than to call an election.

And so the consequence of a disapproval of the budget – how one could decide how to vote before the budget is even presented is a clear indication the budget is secondary to other personal considerations – could be wider than just Malta’s economic and financial plans for next year. It could involve other issues and other people.

Those who cannot afford private IVF treatment will have to wait longer to be able to get the service free of charge at Mater Dei Hospital. It might then be too late for them.

And those who have been living together and want to regularise their position before the law will also have to wait to do so. Again, it might also be too late.