Prime Minister Robert Abela said that the Labour Party is 'convinced' over the importance of local councils and 'is convinced that we have to continue strengthening them'.

Addressing a political activity, Abela appealed for a strong vote for all PL candidates in the coming elections, and said that in local councils led by the Labour Party, 'the difference was big.'

Abela used Hamrun as an example, saying that it was a locality that had certain challenges, but that the PL led council changed it adding that today the locality was upgraded. He said that there were investors who might not have dreamed of investing in a boutique hotel in the locality years ago, but today made that investment as it saw a local council that is ready to invest in the locality together with the central government.

Abela said that the Labour Party has a manifesto for every locality, "which will arrive at your residence."

"What are the priority areas we identified for councils? Aesthetics, the environment, cleanliness, security, more services in the community. We saw that councils led by the Labour Party were catalysts to push forward these priority areas."

Another area the government wants local councils to have more strength in, is the construction sector, he said.

"It was an idea put forward by Isabelle Bonnici, the mother of Jean Paul Sofia, where in one of the meetings we had in a Cabinet sub-committee, she pushed forward the concept that local councils have a greater voice in the reforms we are making. We welcomed that proposal with open arms as it makes a lot of sense, to have councils be given this strength in the reforms we are making now. Reforms that began after the publication of the Jean Paul Sofia inquiry report." He said they are working consistently week after week on them. He said that at Cabinet level this week, they arrived at the point of implementing a new reform. "This reform would see the strengthening of the Office of the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman has three Commissioners under him, one of which deals with environment and planning complaints."

Abela said that Cabinet approved the decision to add the construction sector under the portfolio of the Commissioner for the Environment and Planning. He said that the decision was also taken after discussions with the Ombudsman.

"This will give more of a voice to everyone," he said.

Abela also said that the first reading of a new bill in Parliament had been held regarding health and safety at the workplace, which, he said, "will provide a new legal framework to regulate all questions regarding health and safety at the workplace. We gave a specific timeline, that before we adjourn Parliament for the Summer recess that bill must be law, and I am not of the mind to adjourn Parliament before that bill would have been transformed into a new law to protect the health, safety and lives of workers and those impacted by works."

Parliament is currently not meeting as it shut down on 15 May until the election is over, however Robert Cutajar, the Opposition whip, told The Malta Independent there had already been an agreement with the government whip for this week's agenda, with the idea having been that Parliament would have stopped on 22 May. The government's decision to adjourn Parliament early in the midst of all that is going on locally had raised eyebrows.