Carwyn Jones: You have to have activities that are available throughout the year. Surf Snowdonia is one example of what we’ve supported, and Zip Word and Bounce Below—we’ve supported them. Of course, it’s important to say that tourism shouldn’t be completely seasonal, because of course it then creates a situation where people aren’t in employment throughout the year. So, by supporting such...
Carwyn Jones: We have a tourism investment support scheme. It’s made offers of funding to 42 businesses in the north, totalling £7.8 million. It has created 361 jobs and safeguarded another 113. We have, as well, the tourism attractor destination programme, working on four business plans for the north. If you look at what we’ve spent over the years—you look at Colwyn Bay and the work that’s been...
Carwyn Jones: We have seen an increase in demand on primary care services. I will be launching a national and international marketing campaign to encourage more general practitioners to work in Wales. Over £42 million has been given to health boards to support the delivery of our plans.
Carwyn Jones: Well, the BMA of course is part of the work that we’re undertaking. They’re not outwith that. Of course, they represent their Members, I understand that, but we have been working with them to ensure that there is a reduction in the pressures on GPs. One example is the collaborative in mid Wales, which is working hard to ensure that services are available for people in mid Wales, and is...
Carwyn Jones: I know the health board has established a project board to develop a proposal for the new primary care facility in Mountain Ash, and we look to work with all the health boards to deliver those kinds of facilities. I’ve seen them being opened all across Wales—modern facilities where practices can keep their identities within those buildings, but, nevertheless, have access to support...
Carwyn Jones: We know how important it is to have support services for people when they’re outside hospital. That means ensuring that we don’t cut spending in social services, as has happened, of course, over the border. In Wales, spending on health and social services is 7 per cent higher per head than it is in England, because you cannot divorce the two. You cannot raid social services budgets in...
Carwyn Jones: I have to say to the Member it is normally the case, where GPs deliver tests on behalf of other parts of the health service, that they are paid to do it. They don’t do it for nothing, and, as a result of that, it’s not the case, therefore, that they find that their time is not compensated in that regard. I have to say, for example, on top of what I’ve just said, that this year, we’ve...
Carwyn Jones: The Member is jumping the gun a little, because, of course, the Government has not yet provided a full response to the Diamond review. That response is being considered and will be announced in due course.
Carwyn Jones: I’m not sure that GPs and the metro are connected, but in regard to the metro, that’s because, of course, the franchise will not be transferred until the autumn of next year. So, it’s difficult to give a start date to phase 2. Phase 1 of the metro has started, of course, already. That started last year. It’s to do with phase 2 and the way that the franchise, the agreement on the...
Carwyn Jones: Well, of course, we want to ensure that there is an equitable system in place that uses the funding available, of course, and that follows the principles that we’ve already set down, namely that we retain the principle that everybody should be part of the system, ensure that there is a fair and consistent approach to dealing with students, whether they are part time or full time, ensure, of...
Carwyn Jones: We will look to invest in the institutions, in the universities, of course. It’s not without strings. We want to make sure that our universities deliver, of course. So, I don’t want to give the impression that this is money that universities would get without an expectation that they continue to deliver better, but we want to make sure that investment continues to rise in our higher...
Carwyn Jones: When communities ask about the accessibility to Superfast Cymru, and it’s obvious that BT won’t be providing that service, it’s possible for them to follow other options through the Access Broadband Cymru scheme. Superfast Cymru, for example, is built on the basis of assisting communities where there is no commercial means of assisting them. But there will be alternative means of...
Carwyn Jones: It is important that BT should tell communities why it’s not possible to link them up to superfast broadband. Of course, it is not the aim of Superfast Cymru is to look at whether something can be done commercially, but to ensure that the service is available. So, I think Openreach is duty-bound to say why it’s too much of a problem. Having said that, of course, as I said earlier, it is...
Carwyn Jones: Well, another review will be undertaken during the autumn in order to see what kind of options are available to us publicly to assist some of the communities that don’t fit into Superfast Cymru. But they can still, of course, look at the Access Broadband Cymru scheme in order to ensure that access to broadband is available to them if they don’t fit into Superfast Cymru.
Carwyn Jones: Well, it’s interesting, in the sense of whether we can require developers, either through the building regs or probably more likely through section 106 agreements, to put in place state-of-the-art connections to the boxes? He’s right: there is a mixture of technologies in place in terms of the British phone system, because it lacked investment for so many years. What we’re trying to do...
Carwyn Jones: Yes. Wales benefits from a comprehensive network of arts centres and venues that cover the length and breadth of the country.
Carwyn Jones: Ultimately, of course, it is a matter for the council, but I hope that the draft budget will provide councils across Wales with a level of comfort, so that they feel that they do not have to take decisions along the lines that the Member has just described.
Carwyn Jones: Yes, absolutely. The Member makes a very good point about the educational purposes of arts centres. We shouldn't forget either that arts centres provide employment. Many years ago, I was at a very powerful lecture given by Dr Mererid Hopwood on culture as an economic driver, in Northern Ireland of all places. It emphasised very strongly how the arts can actually be used as a way of developing...
Carwyn Jones: There are plenty of examples where communities have taken over facilities in Wales. Not long ago, I was in Briton Ferry library, in fact, in David Rees's constituency, where the library had been taken over. But it's important to distinguish between helping local people to take over their facilities and forcing them to do so via the Localism Act. We prefer to take a voluntary approach, and we...
Carwyn Jones: We see that the impact of the grant is strong. It’s making a real difference to the lives of disadvantaged learners, and we are starting to break the very stubborn link between poverty and educational achievement.
