Adam Price: In one fell swoop, we’ve gone today from being the future location of the Circuit of Wales to the endless location of the circus of Wales, because we are now an international laughing stock as a result of the shamateurism displayed by the Government. Now then, there must be a day of reckoning, I’m afraid, for the mistakes that have been made, but today let’s focus on the questions. Can...
Adam Price: We welcome, of course, the passage of the Landfill Disposals Tax (Wales) Bill. As has been said a number of times during this process, I think it’s a very important step in the development of the first tax regime for Wales for nearly 800 years. Wales’s progress has always been, perhaps, a zig-zag, but there is progress, and it’s part of the maturing of our democracy, to tell you the...
Adam Price: The Cabinet Secretary will recall the incident in my constituency with Valero and the leak of oil into Nant Pibwr. At the time, NRW had carried out a number of tests in terms of the soil and the water, and they said that they weren’t able to publish the results in case they needed to use those in any legal proceedings. Can the Cabinet Secretary give us an update as to whether those data are...
Adam Price: What actions is the Welsh Government taking in response to the proposed plans to close the Tesco Customer Engagement Centre in Cardiff? TAQ(5)0191(EI)
Adam Price: Speaking earlier today at the Welsh Retail Consortium event at the Senedd, Cabinet Secretary, you discussed the importance of effective dialogue between Welsh Government and the retail sector. In that context, how surprised—indeed, how angry—were you that Tesco, Wales’s biggest private sector employer, gave you no advance warning whatsoever, as I understand it, about these substantial...
Adam Price: One of the great disappointments, I think, when the Minister’s written response to the report was published, was that the Government at the time wasn’t able to give any lead on the two recommendations that were most far-reaching in terms of providing a solution to this situation, namely regulating the private sector, as Hefin David mentioned, in terms of improving standards, but also...
Adam Price: I welcome this debate and I welcome, in general terms, the Government’s desire to test this provision. In reference to one of the amendments, I’ve never quite understood this phrase, ‘We’re not in favour of change for change’s sake’. I mean, in the very basic sense, I don’t think anyone would be in favour of that, but, actually, change for social change’s sake, change in the...
Adam Price: But to turn that argument on its head, if the figures that Gerry Holtham has produced to support his case—you know, the 67 per cent rise that’s coming our way in the short term in non-residential care costs—it would in incautious, of course, not to find a means of funding the quality of care that we, in a decent society, would want to provide. I think that it’s a very, very...
Adam Price: As long as you don’t call me Arthur Laffer. [Laughter.]
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. Last week, as we know, the Government declined to support the Circuit of Wales project, based on the risk that it could be classified as being on balance sheet and, therefore, would have major implications for the Welsh Government’s budget. Now, I’m interested in the decision-making process that led to this assessment in relation to balance sheet classification, as it...
Adam Price: I mentioned the mutual investment model, but I understand, from what he Cabinet Secretary said this morning, that he does not believe that the issue, identified as part of the decision over the Circuit of Wales, has any bearing on the classification regarding the mutual investment model. Could he say a little bit more about why he has come to that view, and, if so, was not a similar approach...
Adam Price: The First Minister last week said that the ONS are not able to give a definitive ruling until contracts are signed in relation to project proposals, but it is the case that they are able to give a provisional ruling on classification. I’m relying here, Cabinet Secretary, on the ONS official guidance on the classification process, which says: ONS is occasionally asked to provide...
Adam Price: Llywydd, once in every generation a specific case comes to light that points to a deeper and more difficult truth about a governing party, often—particularly—when that party has been in power for many years. I’m thinking of the beef tribunal, for example, in Fianna Fáil-led Ireland in the early 1990s, the Scott inquiry in the Conservative Government, and probably too many examples to...
Adam Price: It’s interesting as well that, in an exchange with me on 8 February 2017, when I asked the Cabinet Secretary whether the two sets of criteria you will recall that he set down to take the project to the final stage—the 50 per cent level of guarantee of the debt and the risk met, and also the investor term sheets—he said to me, according to my officials, it does appear that the...
Adam Price: I want to echo some of the initial points made by Jeremy on the importance of the economy in terms of the prosperity of the Welsh language. I have been strongly of the opinion that you can’t separate economic prosperity from linguistic prosperity. Alun Davies will recall that we both occupied a house that is now in my constituency in Carmel during the Newport eisteddfod of 1998, and the...
Adam Price: The strategy does emphasise the regional dimension in terms of economic development, and it’s important to the traditional Welsh-speaking heartlands because of economic and demographic similarities. But, again, the Welsh Government is suggesting a map of economic regions that places those Welsh-speaking areas in with majority non-Welsh-speaking areas. Is the Government in favour of the...
Adam Price: It’s very appropriate for us to have this debate, of course, following the statement that Simon Thomas has just made. It’s true what he says, of course: the Hughes-Parry commission report, I think it was, was the basis for the Act, and that commission, in a way, was the Wolfenden commission for the Welsh language. And the Act didn’t achieve the highest aim we had that was set by that...
Adam Price: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I am very grateful to the two Members for their comments this afternoon. Just to respond first of all to Bethan Jenkins’s comments as Chair of the committee, I’ll cover as much as I can, but if I do forget anything, I will write to you. With regard to the equality impact assessment, I think that we did say in the letter that we would be content for...
Adam Price: Many people feel that the Circuit of Wales was a massive missed opportunity for the Ebbw Vale enterprise zone. Last week, referring to a pre-arranged meeting with the company, you said that ‘the company accepted the issue with regard to the issue of being on balance sheet and the risks that that posed to us—they did not argue with it.’ The chief executive of the company, Martin...
Adam Price: I was wondering if the Cabinet Secretary could just help us in explaining the arc of policy development here, because we had a couple of access to finance reviews—they were both over a period of six months—and many of their key recommendations you haven’t followed, and in fact you’ve done the opposite. You, for example, have allowed Finance Wales currently to operate investment funds...
