Richard Cachia Caruana blamed for allegedly holding up permanent residence scheme

Finance minister Tonio Fenech has said in parliament that a revised version of the Permanent Residence Scheme will be announced in the near future.

But property and estate agents have told MaltaToday that they had been privately told by government officials that the residence scheme is being held up by the permanent representation in Brussels Richard Cachia Caruana.

MaltaToday was told that the Cachia Caruana was under pressure from the EU because it was being alleged that non-European residents who had bought property in Malta had been abusing of their Schengen visa./p>

Cachia Caruana who is an unelected member in the cabinet retains a strong hold on government policy though it is secretly rumoured that he is against Prime Minister Gonzi’s stand on saying no to military bases.

The scheme was suspended at the end of last year.  There have been calls by Labour and the real estate section of the Chamber of Commerce to reinstate it.

It remained at the end of 2010, the only significant growth in the real estate market.

Tonio Fenech said in a reply to a parliamentary question the scheme was being revised so that it could again conform to its original purpose of attracting high income people to Malta.

But this was in fact seen as an excuse, and a property consultant told MaltaToday: “We did not need to suspend the scheme to make such changes.”