The Maltese Parliament is the top democratic institution in the country. It is where laws are debated and passed, where issues of national importance are brought up for discussion.

But there are a number of things which can be done to improve the process, which have been mentioned in the past.

Firstly, one must highlight the length of time MPs speak on a topic.

It is far too long, and points could be made in shorter time frames. At the other extreme lies to European Parliament, where MEPs are granted just a few minutes to speak, with the main speaker from each party being granted a slightly longer time.

We are not saying that the Maltese Parliament should follow the EU Parliament timeframes exactly, but shortening the length of time for speeches would mean less repetition of points, more Bills could be discussed, or perhaps more people would have time to speak.

Another point worth raising is the lack of support staff for the parties in Parliament. Looking at MPs who are not ministers or Parliamentary Secretaries, they have separate full-time jobs to cope with outside of politics and no support staff. They perform miracles in researching topics that are up for discussion, and staying on top of issues, but at the same time they would be able to do a far better job if they had support staff. Now we are not suggesting that every MP be allocated a support staff, that would be far too costly, but perhaps each party being allocated some Parliamentary research staff could lead to improved laws being passed.

There is also the idea of Prime Minister's Question time. The concept does not exist in Malta, but does in the UK. It would be a time slot each week or every two weeks in which the Prime Minister specifically will take questions from MPs. It is a good idea which should be adopted by the Maltese Parliament, and will help ensure more transparency from the government of the day.

Looking at the Standards Committee in Parliament, one could argue for a change in composition. It has been suggested in the past that lay persons also form part of the committee. It is a suggestion which makes sense. Firstly, it would ensure that there wouldn't be any suspicions of MPs protecting their own party members. Secondly it would better guarantee the independence of the committee itself.

These are just a few ideas worthy of consideration in terms of how Parliament could be improved. There are, of course, other, wider issues which also require debate, such as the size of Parliament, in the sense that there are too many MPs for Malta's size, and also the debate on whether Malta should have full-time MPs or the option of being one.