Energy Minister Miriam Dalli said Monday that the PN’s statement on Malta being fully reliant on the Malta-Sicily interconnector is a lie, and that the opposing party should check the facts before ‘shooting statements.’

PN spokesperson for energy Mark Anthony Sammut took to Facebook, alleging that the gas power station which, he said, was meant to solve energy problems, only works in good weather.

The LNG tanker had to be put into storm mooring position due to last week’s bad weather. He also alleged that Malta is fully reliant on the interconnector.

Asked about this, Dalli said that unfortunately, the Opposition feels comfortable taking its politics to social media, whereas the PL’s politics looks at the national interest. She said that the statement made by the PN is a lie, and that it should check its facts.

“Enemalta have a procedure in place where whenever they have a plant which for some reason or another has suffered problems in damages or maintenance, other plants come into effect,” Dalli said.

She added that at no point was Malta ever totally reliant on the interconnector and thanked Enemalta workers who provided the energy supply back to customers in an hour and a half from when the damage to the interconnector happened from Ragusa.

Dalli said that contact was made with the Italian company, where workers worked to fix the faults immediately.

“I can assure the public that it has a government who looks at, and believes in the diversification of energy sources, contrary to the PN who up until today believes that the country is solely reliant on the interconnector,” she said.

Dalli was asked about streetlights, where there have been reports of various streets around Malta and Gozo ending up without power. She said that Enemalta receives complaints of the lack of light from local councils, where they promptly address the issue.

Asked if there is a government policy of energy saving which would lead to a lack of light in the streets, Dalli said that this is absolutely not the case, and local councils have the responsibility to report problems with regard to street lighting.