Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 13 September 2016.
First Minister, I regret that Ford in Detroit weren’t prepared to meet you because, as I understand it, that’s where the decision about the investment was taken and they seemed to have passed the ball back to Ford of Europe on this matter. But there are three very legitimate questions that I hope your Government and yourself as First Minister have been interacting with Ford on and they are: how, going forward, can the jobs be secured with such a dramatic cutback in production at the plant? Also, what new lines, potentially, could come to the plant to secure the 1,850 jobs that are currently at the site? And it is fair to say the Welsh Government have put money on the table to retain jobs at the engine plant, at a level of 850 jobs, as I understand it. Obviously, there are 1,850 jobs on that site at the moment, so what assurances can you give around the discussions that the Welsh Government have had around future job security, around new products coming to the plant and, above all, about the future viability of the plant as a working entity within the Ford manufacturing capacity of the United Kingdom?