Confirmed: ‘Traffic Minister’s’ cash-for-licence scheme put on hold

Traffic Minister Chris Bonett confirmed The Shift’s report that the controversial traffic reduction measures – announced with much pomp last March – have been put on hold following objections by various top government officials, particularly Finance Minister Clyde Caruana.

The Shift last week revealed that Bonett’s primary measure – offering €25,000 over five years for those surrendering their driving licence and car number plate – was ‘stuck in traffic’ as the Finance Ministry did not approve the disbursement of €15 million of public funds.

During a press conference to discuss the progress made on 45 short-term measures launched in March and aimed at alleviating traffic congestion across the island, Minister Bonett acknowledged that the ‘cash-for-licence’ initiative had been temporarily postponed.

The Minister insisted that the delay was not due to a lack of funding but rather a need to rethink the approach of the promised scheme.

While avoiding a new target date—despite the original deadline of the end of June—Bonett said the scheme will now be scaled down and launched as a pilot project for select population segments, rather than being universally available as initially announced in March.

While, if ever introduced, the scheme may lead to claims of discrimination among Maltese driving licence holders, Transport Malta sources now consider its impact to be almost minimal and are considering it “a dead proposal”.

The Shift had already reported how Bonett’s traffic reduction proposals were met with scepticism by his colleagues in Cabinet.

Some ministers had urged Bonett to return to the drawing board, criticising the package of measures as poorly conceived and a misuse of public funds. However, Prime Minister Robert Abela ultimately backed Bonett, stressing internally that the new Transport Minister needed to demonstrate that he was taking the initiative to address the issue.

In his latest press conference, Bonnet claimed to have made progress on his “first 45 proposals” with the introduction of more public transport routes and an intra-governmental agreement, ensuring that road cleaning will not be conducted during peak rush hours.

He again reiterated his promise to introduce a fast ferry between Bugibba, Sliema and Gozo. In March, he said the new ferry service would be introduced by the start of summer. No tenders have been published yet.