Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure – in the Senedd at 1:52 pm on 15 June 2016.
Thank you, Presiding Officer. I’ve already had the opportunity to congratulate the Cabinet Secretary on his appointment, but you can’t have too much of a good thing, so I’ll congratulate him again today and express the hope that, under his guidance, the Welsh economy will really get its skates on—boom, boom. [Laughter.] According to the opinion polls, it looks very much as though Britain is going to vote to leave the EU next week, and I wonder, therefore, if the Cabinet Secretary has given any thought to how he will spend the Brexit dividend that will come to Wales in that event. Because, just taking the one measure alone of Britain’s net contribution to the EU—that’s the money we give to Brussels to be spent elsewhere in the EU of £10 billion a year on a per capita basis calculation—that’s about £500 million a year that will come to Wales and the Welsh Government to be spent. It would be interesting to know if he’s got any ideas as to how we can spend even a part of that money.