Exactly what does maturity have to do with it?

The Prime Minister told journalists this evening that “the decision” (no mention of whose) to refund the several hundred euros which Minister Chris Cardona and his chief of staff/business partner Mario Azzopardi spent on drinks is “mature”.

Mature? You would hope that two men in their 40s and 50s are mature, especially given that one of them sits in cabinet and the other runs his ministry office.

And of course, because Barfly Cardona said this morning that his co-drinker Azzopardi “had decided to refund the money”, everybody trots off missing the obvious.

He decided? Chiefs of staff take orders from their minister. Ministers take orders from the Prime Minister. When a minister’s chief of staff fiddles with expenses, he doesn’t “decide” to return the money because IT’S NOT AN OPTION. He has no choice but to do it, and if he doesn’t, he is ordered to do so by his boss. And if his boss doesn’t do that, he is ordered to do it by the Prime Minister, or by the Prime Minister’s axe-man, who is currently indisposed.

They’re make it sound like some kind of magnanimous, optional, voluntary gesture. But if he doesn’t return the money he faces prosecution and disciplinary action – and with the full glare of the media spotlight, they had no choice but to act. Without that spotlight, they would have let him get away with it.

They’re still going to let him get away with it. If you think he’s going to turn up with a cheque tomorrow, you’re dreaming. We have no way of knowing that he’s paying the money back – just like we have no way of knowing whether Cardona paid Silvan Fenech that post-dated rent. All Fenech – who drinks with him regularly at The Stable Bar – had to do was transfer the money back to him.