Adam Price: As the Cabinet Secretary has explained, these regulations do offer some temporary relief to businesses, particularly in the wake of the revaluation. To that extent, we have to welcome that, because, as we’ve heard from this party and from other parties in the Chamber, there are businesses that are going to suffer very badly because of this revaluation. There is a very different geographical...
Adam Price: 9. What assessment has the Minister made of the consequences of the oil pipeline breach at Nantycaws? OAQ(5)0077(ERA)
Adam Price: Will the Minister provide further details of the multibillion pound infrastructure investment plan announced today? EAQ(5)0100(EI)
Adam Price: I attended a public meeting locally last week, and I have to say there was some disquiet among local residents in light of the absence of the Valero company, but also because of a lack of information provided by public authorities. So, can I ask the Cabinet Secretary to insist that NRW does publish the results of all the tests that they have conducted on the rivers and the ground? They should...
Adam Price: Thank you kindly, Presiding Officer. At least, I think so.
Adam Price: I'm grateful to the Deputy Minister for standing in the breach here and answering this urgent question, that, today, the Government did announce what it said was the biggest investment in infrastructure since devolution, and yet, in a democracy, we would have expected that statement, that major claim, to be made in a parliament and not in an airport at a business breakfast. It's an extreme...
Adam Price: 6. What plans does the Welsh Government have to encourage Welsh consumers to buy Welsh-produced goods and services? OAQ(5)0357(FM)
Adam Price: Norway, which, as we heard, he visited recently, the Republic of Ireland, the German region of Hesse, and others, all have an official, widely recognised country-of-origin brand that, in large part, is aimed at domestic consumers. Now, if, as it seems, we are going to be ejected out of the single market by that regressive alliance of Corbyn and May, import substitution will be even more...
Adam Price: Thank you to the Cabinet Secretary for his statement today and for introducing the final budget of the Welsh Government. As has already been mentioned, of course, this budget is partly the fruit of discussions between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Government—discussions that arose from this new method of collaboration that we have devised. I have to say that I do believe that our politics and...
Adam Price: I’m not sure if the honourable Member was following me in that section of my speech. I think I did say pretty clearly that we did not agree with everything in the budget and, indeed, there were demands that we made as part of our discussions that were not met. So, we’re very clear: we were able to improve the budget, but we are abstaining because we do not agree with the budget as a whole.
Adam Price: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. As we’ve heard two speeches from two committee chairs and one from a party spokesperson from one of the opposition parties, I think I will keep my comments brief, because I don’t want to rehearse the same old issues. But generally speaking, we welcome and accept, as Nick Ramsay said, just how necessary the introduction of this tax is, considering, as...
Adam Price: 2. Is it Welsh Government policy to support a local authority-led pilot of a universal basic income? OAQ(5)0072(FLG)
Adam Price: 8. When will the Cabinet Secretary publish plans, in accordance with the Diamond Review recommendation, to incentivise graduates to work or return to work in Wales? OAQ(5)0068(EDU)
Adam Price: I welcome the Cabinet Secretary’s comments. He’s referred, of course, to the pilot in Scotland. There is widespread support, I believe, for this concept now across the political spectrum and, yes, on the left—we recall that it was Milton Friedman who was one of the early advocates of this concept, and Richard Nixon actually staged the first ever pilot scheme. If local government did...
Adam Price: Diolch, Lywydd. Politicians from the Cabinet Secretary’s party and from mine have long bemoaned the fact that the UK Government’s capital investment has tended to benefit one corner of the country, the south east of England, over all others. Does he think that the Welsh Government has a better record of achieving an even spread of investment across Wales?
Adam Price: Yes, but does that explain the vast gap that we see in the Cabinet Secretary’s own figures—he’s provided them in a written question—between the different regions of Wales? I’ll just give one example, the spend per capita. Welsh Government capital investment over four years, the last four years, in mid and west Wales is half the over £1,000 per head figure for south-east Wales. Next...
Adam Price: The only crumb of comfort that I, as a Welsh nationalist, can take from the kind of figures that I’ve laid out—which show the Cardiff centricity, I think, of the leadership, unfortunately, of the Labour Party—is that at least one region of Wales should be doing well. But we see the same chronic mismanagement here, and I ask him, in his role as local government Minister: is he aware of...
Adam Price: I’m grateful to the Cabinet Secretary for her response. Has the Government commissioned any research? For example, there are a great many programmes that have this core aim of attracting graduates or retaining graduates within their home nation once they graduate across the world. I’m aware that over 40 states in the United States use different kinds of debt relief, most often—that’s...
Adam Price: Diolch, Lywydd. I’m moving the amendment, obviously, in our name, which sets out our consistent position that, of the models currently on the table, the EEA/EFTA option is the one that best meets the Welsh economic national interest. I have a philosophical and an emotional attachment to the idea of being a Welsh European, but I’d like to have the debate today a little bit at not quite the...
Adam Price: Well, I’m all for growing our exports in all directions, and there’s nothing wrong with a bit of optimism, but I’m just stating the facts as they currently stand. I accept that these figures change in response to this very, very uncertain economic environment that we’re in, but the fact of the matter is we are, as things currently stand—given where we are in terms of the economic...
