Transport Minister Austin Gatt said that only 3 of the 508 bus driving licences currently in circulation were not accounted for as practically all bus owners sold their licences to the government. He said that 2 low-floor buses and 1 old bus have not been sold to the government.

A total of 315 old bus owners also sold their bus to the government, as did 125 owners of the low floor ones. Dr Gatt said that the 508 buses were owned by 340 people, 215 of whom were also drivers. All owner-drivers were interested in the 10-year job guarantee. Bus drivers had been offered €103,000 for old buses and €123,000 for the newer, low-floor buses.

Dr Gatt also took the opportunity to defend the €55 million compensation offer, which was strongly criticised by the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry among others.

He added that the 10-year job guarantee was against redundancy, and that drivers could still face dismissal. The minister also said that the new public transport operator would need around 600 drivers to run the reformed public transport service and would therefore still need to hire new drivers.

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