Parliament’s Health Chair replaced after failing to call a meeting for two years

Malcolm Agius Galea, the Parliamentary Secretary for Active Ageing, was removed from his position as Chairman of Parliament’s Health Committee after failing to convene a meeting for the past two years.

Labour Mosta MP Romilda Zarb replaced him on the orders of Prime Minister Robert Abela.

The Health Committee is supposed to be the most important forum in the House of Representatives to discuss pending health issues and scrutinise the government’s work progress in this crucial area.

However, for some reason, the Parliamentary Secretary has not found the time to call a single meeting since October 2023.

Speaking to The Shift, Committee member, PN MP Ian Vassallo, a podiatrist by profession, said that the opposition could not understand why no meetings were being held. He insisted that opposition MPs have, on various occasions, called on Agius to convene the committee due to pressing issues, but nothing has changed.

According to Parliament’s standing orders, it is the duty of the appointed Committee Chairman, who gets an extra remuneration to chair standing committees, to organise the agenda and call meetings.

Contacted by The Shift, the Parliamentary Secretary Agius Galea failed to explain why he had not called a meeting in two years.

Instead, he said: “The Health Committee now has a new Chairperson, and a meeting is already scheduled to take place next week.”

Aguis’s replacement at the helm of the Health Committee was made following an embarrassing ruling by the speaker.

In July, Vassallo asked the speaker to intervene as it was not clear why such an essential parliamentary committee continued to remain dormant.

Through a ruling, Speaker Anglu Farrugia noted the concerning situation and asked the Zebbug MP and Parliamentary Secretary to restart convening the committee.

Soon after, Agius was replaced by Romilada Zarb. The latter is a pharmcist and was given a job at the government’s Medicines Authority recently.

The first meeting of the Health Committee in two years is expected to take place in a few weeks. No agenda has been published yet.