Prime Minister Robert Abela said that he will not tolerate the dragging of feet in the investigations into yesterday’s residence collapse – a collapse which claimed the life of 54 year old Miriam Pace.
Abela said that the fact that inquiries and investigations into previous cases of residences collapsing were taking months were unacceptable, noting that he will not tolerate this or any form of impunity.
Abela was speaking in a ministerial statement in Parliament, in a sitting which was dedicated to the memory of Miriam Pace who died yesterday after her house collapsed into an adjacent construction site in Hamrun.
Abela opened his speech by saying that he felt a sense of sadness and sorrow at the tragedy, but that this was pointless because the people in truth want answers to why this happened and solutions so it doesn’t happen again.
“This is the fourth case where structures collapsed – these situations cannot be tolerated anymore”, Abela said.
“Reality shows that the institutions worked, but worked slowly. That these cases take a span of is not acceptable – there are two cases where nobody was charged, where nobody has shouldered responsibility”, he continued.
“I will not tolerate this. I will not tolerate impunity”, Abela said before noting that everyone has the right to develop, but that it cannot transfer into situations like this.
He said that everyone involved who displayed shortcomings must bear responsibility for what happened. He said that he would not comment, even though he had established an opinion after seeing the site, so that he would not prejudice the case.
Abela said that he would not tolerate “feet being dragged”. “Allow delays is doing a disservice to Miriam’s memory”, he said before noting that he would continue running after the police for a hasty conclusion to investigations.
He said that he will take the responsibility of seeing that the regulations pertaining to the avoidance of damage to third party property are revised again – they were last revised last July after the collapse of three residences in the space of – especially in terms of enforcement.
“There have been over 900 site inspections, but more needs to be done. We need to do everything so that this doesn’t happen again”, he said.
He said that there needs to be an element of seriousness, noting that responsibility must be taken when it is seen that the project’s architect was also a shareholder in the developer’s company.
“We cannot kill the construction industry, because it is important, but there is a way and a way. You have no right to destroy the lives of a neighbour sitting quietly at home in the blink of an eye. Measures will have to be added, and if they need to be drastic, let them be drastic”, he said.
He said that the industry must take responsibility and bear the consequences. “We cannot tell people that they have to go get a lawyer and go to court to protect their rights and their houses. We have to create mechanisms which create balance and retain the sacrosanct value of enjoying one’s home in peace and quiet”, he said.
If this does not happen and the industry is not responsible for itself, Abela threatened, further enforcement measures will be added.
He said that he will insist for heavy penalties so to send the message that this cannot happen every again.
“This is not on. I will be insistent that this does not happen again. This is the duty we have to Miriam’s memory and the whole Maltese people”, Abela concluded.
‘Miriam was killed by a failed system’ – Adrian Delia
“No words can make up for the hug loss that Miriam’s husband and children are feeling, along with her friends and relatives”, Delia begun his speech.
He said that she had been killed by a “failed system”, where laws apply differently to different people.
“Law and regulations were weakened based on the excuse that we want to grow the economy. Where we couldn’t weaken the laws, we weakened the institutions. Where we couldn’t weaken the institutions, we put someone to close a blind eye”, he continued.
He said that the new laws had created a system where it is easy for the persons involved to shift the blame.
“Miriam Pace is victim of a system which does not care about the small or the vulnerable. She is the victim of a system which has put money as the God of everything – the bottom line – and which has removed every value from the human life”, he said.
He said that they will now decide whether Pace’s death “will break the system, or will end up buried under its failures like she was”.
The first step to addressing the situation, he said, is to remove ties between political parties and big businesses and implement state finances for political parties. He said that all dependence or perceived dependence of political parties on big businesses had to be removed.
He also called for a joint committee which brings together experts from entities such as the Chamber of Architects to bring about a “radical change to strengthen the voice of the public against rampant development”.
“Let us strengthen our institutions to shield the people and not the government of the day. If we do this, at least the tragedy of her loss will result in something positive”, Delia concluded before also thanking members of the Civil Protection Department for their work.
The parliamentary sitting ended after both leaders’ speeches, with the government agreeing with the Opposition that out of respect for the victim of the tragic incident, the sitting should be adjourned immediately.