Parliamentary Secretary Michael Falzon who is responsible for Mepa said that the authority is a “bureaucratic monster and this government is not scared of monsters”.

He said we could have easily remained relaxed like the ones before us and not have tackled Mepa’s problems but we decided to do something about it.

When one implements change, this brings positive and negative reactions. But the PN’s reaction was so negative that it also went personal.

“I was tempted to do the same but I did not,” he said.

He went on to say that this government paid the Church for most of the land that was expropriated, payments of which have been pending for some 21 years.

“Shame on you,” Dr Falzon told the PN, “for having taken the Church for a ride”.

On the House of the Four Winds, he said the public got some 4.6 million euros which will be allocated towards child-care centres. He said so after PN MP Ryan Callus this morning called on the government to revoke the 65-year lease agreement with Bank of Valletta on the House of the Four Winds in Valletta, which had previously been rented to the bank for 30 years.

Mr Callus said this government had used a clause in the law that should only be used for industrial projects that would render to the country’s economy and would create a substantial number of jobs. This showed that the use of such a clause was not justified and the change from rental to lease was illegal, Mr Callus said.

Dr Falzon’s statement brought about an exchange of comments between both sides of the House which led to deputy speaker Censu Galea having to intervene to calm things down. Eventually, the Speaker also asked three persons who were sitting in the Strangers Gallery to leave the building at once due to some comments they passed during the debate. Another person’s details were taken by parliament’s ushers after Mr Callus identified him as the person who insulted him.

On his early retirement, Dr Falzon said he took up the early BOV retirement scheme after “36 impeccable years”.

On the PN’s claim that Bank of Valletta has become a Labour Party Club, he said that the PN has many of its leading exponents working at BOV and earning thousands of euros so how can it ever be that the bank is a PL club? he asked.