Carwyn Jones: It’s all-important—we know that shellfish is extremely important to the fisheries industry in Wales. The majority of the boats that we have are relatively small, they catch shellfish, and they don’t go very far from the coast. And they know, and we know, that there is a strong market for them in Europe. If anything were to happen to weaken their position in that market, well, they...
Carwyn Jones: Yes. I know that Torfaen local authority has over £86 million earmarked for band A of the twenty-first century schools and education programme, which extends over the five years to 2019. I know that projects to the value of over £66 million have already been approved, with six projects either under construction or completed.
Carwyn Jones: Indeed. My friend the Member for Torfaen is absolutely right: more than £20 million invested in schools in Torfaen—a good example of the local authority working with Welsh Government to deliver the best for our children, and yet another good example of the Welsh Government and a Labour-controlled local authority delivering schools that are fit for the twenty-first century and good for the...
Carwyn Jones: Well, local authorities are responsible for the organisation of education in their areas, and, of course, Torfaen, as other authorities are doing, are looking to provide the best and most modern provision possible.
Carwyn Jones: We plan to continue to support businesses in their growth, to invest in high-quality infrastructure and to improve economic development conditions.
Carwyn Jones: Yes, I do. We want to see Newport, like all parts of Wales, developed to its full potential. A lot of work is already under way, which will bring benefit to Newport, including the ongoing regeneration activity, the establishment of Innovation Point, and the proposals being taken forward with regard to the M4.
Carwyn Jones: Yes. It’s certainly not the case that we accept trickle-down economics, far from it. We want to make sure that communities are connected—and that’s what the south Wales metro, for example, is about—and connected digitally as well, which is why we have Superfast Cymru, and to ensure that people have the skills that they need in order to improve their incomes and to get jobs in the...
Carwyn Jones: We have a record number of start-ups. We’re seeing more and more young people particularly getting involved in businesses and becoming very successful in business. It’s right to say that Brexit introduces an element of uncertainty, and these are uncertain times indeed for businesses. But, as a Government, we will continue, of course, to support start-ups and ensure that many of those...
Carwyn Jones: We are continuing with the development of proposals to improve access to the airport by public transport and by car, supporting, amongst other things, of course, the current bus and rail arrangements.
Carwyn Jones: Can I welcome what the Member has said about the airport, and in particular his comments about the progress the airport has made since the Welsh Government took it over? They’re not comments that are echoed on that side of the Chamber, who would happily have seen it overgrown by now if it had been left in their hands. He does ask an important question though. Can I say to him that the focus...
Carwyn Jones: Well, the question is about access to Cardiff Airport, but I’m more than happy to answer the question about Heathrow. I’m surprised he doesn’t welcome the announcement yesterday—the fact that 8,000 jobs will be secured, all that investment, the fact that we worked with Heathrow to—[Interruption.] High-pitched screaming won’t help him. The fact that we have secured commitment to...
Carwyn Jones: Well, I’m sure the Member can speak for himself, Llywydd, actually, on that basis. The issue is this: we will be creating thousands of jobs. We will be ensuring that there will be hubs for manufacturing outside Wales. We will be ensuring that there will be routes that are being looked at to Welsh airports, not just Cardiff—not just Cardiff. And what was announced yesterday is far more...
Carwyn Jones: What he seems to be suggesting is we shouldn’t have a bus service to the airport. I can’t agree with that position. It comes back to the position his party took—they didn’t want the airport to succeed. At the end of the day, the Welsh Conservatives didn’t want the airport to grow, they were happy to see the airport decline, they would have sat on their backsides and seen the airport...
Carwyn Jones: Yes. I can say that, with the support of the Welsh Government, Arriva Trains Wales secured additional paths from the north of Wales to Manchester Airport. Those additional services started operating in May of last year, and we are working, of course, with Merseytravel to develop opportunities for delivering new services to Liverpool and to John Lennon airport in the next franchise, on the...
Carwyn Jones: Well, I mean, there are ways of appealing, if he feels that his request hasn’t been dealt with.
Carwyn Jones: That is a very strong case indeed for borrowing now to invest for the future. It’s never been cheaper to borrow money on the world markets. We know from the experience after the end of the second world war, when the UK was in a far worse position than it is now financially, that the Government of the day took the position that it would seek to borrow money in order to invest for the future....
Carwyn Jones: I think the leader of UKIP is being naive in what he says. First of all, there is the obvious moral question of those countries that are rich helping those countries that are poor. The example of Norway is a prime example of that. The Norway Grants were set up by the Norwegian Government because they felt they’d done very well out of oil and gas and wanted to give something back to people...
Carwyn Jones: He uses one example. There are many, many other examples of countries where people have suffered greatly, a lot of it due to the ineptitude of European powers who left those countries with artificial boundaries and with economic incoherence, and who left those countries without a tradition of governance. They were left to struggle as a result of it. Many of those countries now have good...
Carwyn Jones: The competence will change, but our belief is this: we will pass this legislation and we will do what is right by the people of Wales. It is a matter then for the UK Parliament to decide whether it wishes to override an Act that was passed by the people of Wales in their Parliament. If they choose to do that, they will precipitate a constitutional crisis.
Carwyn Jones: We will do everything that we can to make sure that that doesn’t happen. We will take this legislation through the Assembly, and we believe it will pass with the support of not just the governing party, of course, but that of her own party as well, we trust. It is a matter then for the UK Parliament, and the House of Lords particularly, to decide whether it is constitutionally appropriate...
