Nick Ramsay: [Continues.]—or a comment from the Chair of the Finance Committee.
Nick Ramsay: Thank you. If I could turn to some of the specifics and our national health service, the NHS is a key priority for the people of Wales and Welsh Conservatives believe that it should be our key priority too. We are, of course, still playing catch up because of the lack of real-terms budget protection over a number of years, but we are where we are. The ‘Prosperity for All’ document states...
Nick Ramsay: Cabinet Secretary, would you take an intervention?
Nick Ramsay: I hear what you’re saying about talking about just exploration of a tourism tax at this point in time, however, do you recognise that there is a danger that a perception will go out that there is a tax on tourists coming to Wales that doesn’t exist across the border in England? In areas like my own, along the border areas, we need to guard against that sort of perception going out. So, I...
Nick Ramsay: Will the First Minister make a statement on levels of funding for local authority services in Monmouthshire?
Nick Ramsay: I look forward to travelling on ‘Skates Air’. I think there’s probably a niche in the market for you there, Ken. [Laughter.] You’ve put me off my train of thought now. It’s clearly been disappointing, Cabinet Secretary, that air passenger duty hasn’t been devolved to this place, and before you say, ‘Well, it’s your Government’, I’m aware of that, and we will continue to...
Nick Ramsay: Thanks for giving way. I fully support you, Cabinet Secretary, on the metro. I wonder if any more thought or discussions have been had over the potential of a metro hub at the Celtic Manor. I’ve raised this with you many times before and think it would be a good development in the metro network.
Nick Ramsay: Diolch, acting Deputy Presiding—Chair, I think is probably easier. I’m pleased to move the amendments today in the name of Paul Davies. Can I firstly welcome the UK Government’s willingness to devolve business rates to the Welsh Government? We certainly in the Welsh Conservatives believe that that was a step in the right direction. Yes, we did have a certain amount of control over...
Nick Ramsay: I thank you for giving way, Minister. I recognise that there has been a level of support, over and above what was promised last year, and we do welcome that. But there are other businesses that have fallen through the net, besides those you’ve mentioned, so could your Welsh Government look again at the schemes in place?
Nick Ramsay: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the impact of the abolition of the Severn bridge tolls on traffic levels on the M4?
Nick Ramsay: First Minister, the twenty-first century schools programme has probably been one of the most popular Welsh Government policies over recent years, due in no small part to the role played by progressive, forward-looking local authorities like Conservative-led Monmouthshire. Monmouth Comprehensive School is currently being rebuilt and, when complete, will have state-of-the-art facilities,...
Nick Ramsay: First Minister, I was delighted to take part in the first Pride march in Cardiff a couple of years ago. I wasn’t coming out, by the way; I was representing my party. It was a great event, as is the Pride movement itself. Following on from what Hannah Blythyn said, these events—and I welcome Flintshire Pride—do tend to be associated, or have been in the past, with cities and urban areas,...
Nick Ramsay: Will you give way?
Nick Ramsay: Thanks for giving way, Gareth. You made some interesting points there. There is, of course, a flip side to that: that if you have driverless cars that are communicating with each other via computer, Wi-Fi or whatever it is, you can actually have shorter stopping distances, because you’re not relying on human reaction, so you can get far more capacity out of the existing road network.
Nick Ramsay: Will you give way?
Nick Ramsay: Thanks for giving way, Julie. You’ve been extremely good and diligent at visiting broadband notspots across my constituency and across deepest, darkest Wales over the last few months. Are you really willing to take this on? You might get invited to all sorts of parts of Wales to check electric charging point notspots as well. [Laughter.]
Nick Ramsay: Can I concur with the earlier comments of Janet Finch-Saunders in referring to the Auditor General for Wales’s report on procurement? I look forward, with the rest of the members of the Public Accounts Committee, to looking further into that. It’s clearly a very important issue for the Assembly to look at. Secondly, within the last couple of weeks, an application for a new hotel and spa...
Nick Ramsay: That was a question. [Laughter.]
Nick Ramsay: Diolch, Llywydd. Today’s motion is very clear: we simply do not want to see a tourism tax implemented in Wales. I imagine most of you will have worked that out by now. [Laughter.] Members are aware that Wales now has significant tax-raising powers under the Wales Acts of 2014 and 2017 and that, earlier this year, the Welsh Government consulted on proposed new taxation methods. That...
Nick Ramsay: And there we have it. Plaid Cymru Members will do anything to distract from talking about a tourism tax. Fiscal vision for Wales, landfill tax—you’ll talk about anything, but you don’t want to talk about this. Now, to be fair to the Member—not the Member who intervened, but Adam Price—he was more than happy to talk about and endorse a tourism tax in the draft budget statement only a...
