PN candidate Norman Vella disassociates himself from party's IVF leave motion

The NET TV presenter joins the dissenting voices within the Nationalist Party against a motion presented by the party to strike off a legal notice granting 100 hours of leave to women undergoing IVF treatment
 

NET TV presenter Norman Vella
NET TV presenter Norman Vella

Norman Vella has joined MP Therese Comodini Cachia in openly voicing dissent at a motion presented by the Nationalist Party that will be debated in Parliament tonight.

In a Facebook post this afternoon, Vella said he was in favour of all workers, without distinction, being granted leave for IVF treatment. He declared his "absolute" disagreement with the motion put forward by the PN parliamentary group to strike off a legal notice that was introduced last summer granting 100 hours of leave for couples undergoing IVF.

"I want to publicly disassociate myself from this motion," Vella said, adding that he supported wholeheartedly the PN MPs who would vote against this motion in line with their conscience.

Norman Vella's Facebook post
Norman Vella's Facebook post

Sources told MaltaToday PN leader Adrian Delia was adamant during a parliamentary group meeting this week that he would not give his MPs a free vote on the matter. The official party line is that the motion does not deal with matters of conscience but tries to address a legal anomaly - the definition of prospective parent in the legal notice is different from that in the law regulating IVF.

Comodini Cachia told MaltaToday on Wednesday she disagreed with the motion and insisted she will not vote against her conscience irrespective of the party line.

Sources told MaltaToday Comodini Cachia was not alone in her opposition to the PN motion but it was unclear whether they would go the whole hog and vote against it.

Delia had stressed during the leadership campaign that he believed in giving MPs a free vote on matters of conscience, an appeal he also made to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat during their meeting last September.