Prime Minister Robert Abela has appointed a four-person committee to take stock of the construction industry and draw up much-needed revisions following the tragic death of Miriam Pace, who lost her life after her home collapsed.

Former Judge Lawrence Quintana, Engineer Adrian Mifsud, Architect Mario Cassar, and Lawyer Mark Simiana will make up the committee’s members.

Abela was reluctant to provide a specific timeline for when the committee will need to hand in its recommendations. However, he said he was imploring urgency.

Abela was coy on what actual changes he believed needed to happen. Asked by Lovin Malta as to whether an official government register and licensing of contractors would be set up (unlike the register siphoned off to the developer’s lobby), Abela said it would be up to the committee to decide.

He adopted a similar position when faced with questions over the lack of enforcement after Abela continually asserted that current legislation was robust enough to rein in the industry.

Abela was also reluctant to say whether Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg should shoulder political responsibility, explaining that the facts around the case still had to be ascertained.

“Whoever it is, if they contributed to the incident they would need to bear responsibility,” he said.

Miriam Pace was killed when her house in Ħamrun collapsed as a result of works at the ongoing construction site.

The architect, Roderick Camilleri, who is also a shareholder in the development and the author of the risk-assessing method statement, had declared that a collapse of nearby buildings was “minimal”.

Six people have been arrested, including Camilleri, the site technical officer Anthony Mangion, excavation and demolition contractor Ludwig Dimech.

The Ħamrun construction site is owned by a development consortium, MCZMC Developers Limited. The company is made up of Malcolm Mallia, Matthias Mallia, Elton Joseph Caruana, Amanda Muscat, Christopher Zarb, Simon Zarb, and the construction site’s architect Roderick Camilleri.

Mallia is also a council member of the MDA. He has since been suspended from his role.