In the weeks to come, a bill to transform the current police training academy into one which will serve as a place for all members of the disciplinary forces to seek accredited training will be presented in parliament, Home Affairs and National Security Minister Carmelo Abela said.

Speaking during a ‘Government that Listens’ session, he announced that a second call for applications for police recruits will be issued later this year.

Mr Abela said that parliament is currently discussing amendments to the Civil Protection Act which will see Civil Protection Department members receiving a pension after their 25 years of service, same as the police and army and as had been pledged by Labour prior to the general election.

While on the subject of disciplinary forces, Mr Abela said that such members were granted a right to join a union of their choice for the first time ever but he emphasised that trade unions needed to understand that this is a first for Malta and therefore all stakeholders needed to work together.

He said that his door is always open to listen to the unions on the conditions of work of members of our forces. Police Officer Union president Inspector Sandro Camilleri thanked the minister for having granted police the right to a union which enabled such members to speak out “after 200 years”.

Migration

Mr Abela said that the issue of migration is a rather complex one and the situation won’t change overnight with a push of a button.

“Until some years ago, nobody ever dreamt that Malta would be receiving a number of Syrian refugees who are fleeing political turmoil in their country,” he said.

“The EU is acknowledging that the migration issue is the responsibility of all member states and not just the few which are close to Libya,” adding that “Malta is pushing for EU plan for migration to be fully implemented”.

Turning to convicts, he said that a number of inmates have a possibility of working outside the Kordin Correctional Facility and the feedback the government is getting from employers who employ such persons is positive.

“It is in the interest of society that such persons are allowed to reintegrate,” he continued.

An elderly person in the audience – who has become synonymous with asking questions during Gvern li Jisma sessions which put a smile on the faces of those present – asked the minister whether he agrees the prisons should be open and not confined. The minister quipped: “We might as well not have any prisons.”

Ireland to donate much-talked about patrol boat to Malta

Ireland is to donate a patrol boat to Malta some time soon, Dr Abela said. He was referring to the much-talked about 36-year-old patrol boat LÉ Aoife.

This newsroom had reported that AFM personnel have expressed a number of concerns on both the policy of accepting donated hand-me-down equipment from other armed forces, as well as the actual capabilities of the LÉ Aoife.

There are a number of concerns about the vessel. One of them is the fact that the vessel is old – 36 years old – to be precise. She has travelled enough miles to circumnavigate the globe 28 times. In fact, Irish media reported that the vessel developed a malfunction while in Cork’s Deep Water Quay on Saturday 24 August of 2013.

The Irish media quoted a navy spokesman as saying that the vessel developed a malfunction and was propelled forwards, instead of backwards and went into a pontoon. The vessel was damaged, but not below the waterline. Irish media also quoted the spokesman as saying that the vessel’s age could have had something to do with the malfunction.