Adam Price: I’m grateful. We heard in the earlier debate, didn’t we, the importance of the social partnership model, which is tripartite—company, unions and Government. Surely, in the context of the steel industry, there is an absolutely central role for Government and, I agree, for Governments—plural; both Welsh and UK.
Adam Price: Does he accept that there is a distinction here? Because, of course, Tata has a parent company and, uniquely in English and Welsh law, there is unlimited liability under the Pensions Act 2014. The pension regulator can actually go after Tata’s assets, whether they’re in Europe, India, or wherever across the world.
Adam Price: Would the Member give way?
Adam Price: Seeing as you’re attacking me, would you give way?
Adam Price: Well, it’s operating profit. You could regard it as—. I mean, it doesn’t actually have a formal definition in that sense. But the point is, if that really is a hard contingency—that this investment plan is completely reliant upon that level of continual operating profit, in a context in which we know—. This is one of the most cyclical industries of all—. Let’s remember we’ve...
Adam Price: Diolch, Lywydd. I rise to speak for steel once again in this Chamber—for steelworkers, for steel pensioners, for steel communities, for a sector that is the very foundational core of our economy. There are those who perhaps would prefer it if I were silent, but I’ve been told to shut up by Labour councillors ever since I was a boy in the miners welfare hall in Ammanford. And I didn’t...
Adam Price: I would particularly like to thank those steelworkers, past and present, who have reached out to us to thank us for saying, on the record, what many of them privately feel. The question I think that is at the forefront of our minds at the moment in relation to Tata’s proposals is twofold: one, does it provide a sustainable, viable future for the steel industry in Wales going forward? And...
Adam Price: No Bill is perfect, but what is his view of the almost unique imperfection that the former Lord Chief Justice pointed out—that there is in this Bill the ability for a Minister in Westminster to strike down through ministerial diktat, effectively, primary legislation passed here? That’s not just an insult to devolution—it’s an insult to democracy itself.
Adam Price: I thank the Llywydd and the Cabinet Secretary for his statement this afternoon, and I would also like to thank the Chair of the Finance Committee for the opportunity to see the transcript of the recent meeting that they held. There is a great deal to be welcomed in this new framework, but in the time available to me, I want to focus on three specific issues, namely: the operation of the...
Adam Price: Finally, may I ask the Cabinet Secretary to tell us a little more about the process of dealing with any dispute? I welcome the fact that there will be a role for an independent council through a new independent body on the Welsh side. But, having read the document, it appears to me that, despite the fact that there will be independent evidence available, it will be up to the two Governments...
Adam Price: In his meeting with Bimlendra Jha, was he able to outline the nature of the concerns that we’ve expressed in my party, but are also widely shared among the workforce, about the highly uncertain nature of the commitments on investment and employment, and also the potential consequences of the proposal to de-link the British Steel pension scheme and Tata effectively creating an orphan fund?...
Adam Price: 6. Will the First Minister state what plans he has to discuss the package of proposals Tata Steel has presented to the workforce with its interim chair, Ratan Tata? OAQ(5)0370(FM)
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...
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 2. Is it Welsh Government policy to support a local authority-led pilot of a universal basic income? OAQ(5)0072(FLG)
