Newly-elected Nationalist backbencher and PN shadow minister for Gozo, Frank Anthony Tabone, has thrown his weight behind Opposition leader Alex Borg's call for Energy Minister Miriam Dalli to resign, telling The Malta Independent on Sunday that this summer's power cuts were the latest and most visible sign of what he described as decades of neglect of Gozo's infrastructure.

Asked directly whether Dalli should resign and be held politically accountable following power cuts that left large parts of Gozo without electricity for around 26 hours earlier this month, Tabone said he fully agreed with his party leader that she should shoulder political responsibility. "This is not something outside her control," he said, adding that the Energy Ministry had, "year after year", repeated the same explanations whenever outages occurred, whether blaming ageing cables or unusually high summer demand.

He argued that the underlying problem was a persistent lack of investment in Gozo's electricity network, stating that the last significant infrastructural investment on the island dated back to 2001, noting that Gozo's resident population, housing stock and consumption have grown substantially since.

Older houses have since been converted into multiple apartments, he said, without the network being upgraded to match. He said he did not believe adequate contingency planning had been in place to cope with the surge in demand expected during a heatwave, despite what he said were repeated warnings, and questioned why diesel generators had to be transported from Malta only after the fault occurred.

His comments echo the findings of a National Audit Office report into Enemalta's electricity distribution network, which identified serious shortcomings in planning and concluded that under-investment was the principal cause of this year's outages. The PN tabled a motion of no confidence in Dalli in Parliament early this summer, calling for her resignation or dismissal, after repeated outages linked to faults on the high-voltage cables left thousands of households, restaurants and hotels without power during a summer heatwave.

The power cuts, Tabone said, were not an isolated failure but part of a wider pattern of underinvestment he sees across Gozo's infrastructure. He pointed to the second consecutive summer of disruption caused by the closure of the road linking Rabat to Marsalforn, works on which, he said, remain behind schedule despite the government's deadline of December for their completion. He said he had filed a parliamentary question on the matter, and that the minister responsible had reconfirmed the December deadline, though he expressed doubt it would be met given the pace of works so far.

Some improvements, he acknowledged, had followed his intervention, including lighting installed to improve access along the route. He said restaurant and business owners in Marsalforn had told him they were losing trade for a second summer running because of the closure, with traffic being diverted along what he described as a dangerous stretch of road towards Żebbuġ, as well as through Xagħra, which he said had struggled to absorb the additional volume.

The Labour government had also promised a breakwater at Marsalforn, he said, but it has not materialised. This is just one example of large-scale projects in Gozo either stalling or under-delivering, noting that the exposed seafront has left nearby restaurants vulnerable to damage during storms.

He linked this pattern to what he described as a deeper structural problem: responsibility for decisions affecting Gozo, he said, is too fragmented across different ministries, with the Gozo Channel ferry service falling under the Gozo Ministry, the fast ferry service under the Transport Ministry, and tourism authorities reporting to the Tourism Ministry rather than to Gozo's own ministry.

He said the Nationalist Party's electoral manifesto had committed to seeking constitutional recognition of Gozo as a region, with a regional council giving Gozitans a greater say in how funds earmarked for the island are spent, a position he said reflected long-standing calls from bodies including the Gozo Business Chamber and Gozo Tourism Association.

That same fragmentation, he said, is felt most directly in Gozo's maritime links. Gozo Channel continues to rely on an ageing vessel alongside a fleet due for replacement only by 2028. In the meantime, the company is operating the temporary vessel Nikolaos, at an annual cost running into hundreds of thousands of euro a year. He said he had also raised the case for priority boarding for Gozitan residents using the fast ferry service, arguing this would ease pressure on commuters, and called for continued investment in the fast ferry terminal, which he said remains inadequate for current passenger volumes. He further argued that the Mġarr Harbour itself has seen no substantial investment since the 1960s despite increased freight and passenger services, charters and fishing activity.

Away from transport, Tabone said Gozo General Hospital remains structurally under-resourced despite some recent investment in equipment, resulting in longer waiting times than in Malta for many services. He said the Nationalist Party had pledged to open the Rabat Health Centre in Gozo on a 24-hour basis to ease pressure on the hospital, alongside the party's separate manifesto commitment to building a new 400-bed hospital in Gozo, complete with a helipad for emergency cases.

Turning to Gozo's tourism potential, Tabone said the island should position itself around quality, longer-stay visitors rather than day-trippers, pointing to Teatru Astra's annual autumn opera season in Victoria as an example of the kind of draw that persuades tourists to stay overnight rather than pass through. He said there was scope for further investment in diving and in promoting walking trails around the island, describing untapped potential that even many Gozitans are unaware of. He said visitors who have already booked a Gozo holiday for the following year need assurance that basic services, including a stable electricity supply, will be in place when they arrive.

That same pull between staying and leaving, he said, runs through education. Investment was needed in Gozo's University of Malta and MCAST campuses, particularly evening courses, so that Gozitan students are not forced to relocate to Malta to complete their studies, a pattern he linked to young Gozitans leaving the island permanently once they move for work or education. He also pointed to skills' shortages in sectors such as catering; arguing for greater investment in the Gozo campus of the Institute of Tourism Studies so that hospitality businesses are less reliant on foreign labour.