Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:45 pm on 13 September 2016.
Diolch, Ddirprwy Lywydd. I am grateful that you’ve allowed me time. I’ll keep it brief—just one question with a little bit of context before. There are several reasons, of course, why we want to hold major sporting events. First, there’s the sporting legacy—the participation, which we would all support. Secondly, there’s the showcase Wales, if you like—the bells and whistles showing Wales on television screens around the world; showing us in good light. And the more of these events that we have, the merrier, apart from the fact, of course, that it’s a limited budget that the major events unit has and we have to be very, very careful. It’s not great looking at the 2016-17 list of major-events-unit-sponsored events; they’re spread around Wales—you know, north Wales isn’t particularly well represented. The other one is the economic impact at the time—the money spent in hotels and so on when an event is on.
The other point, which is what my question is about, is the longer lasting economic effects. We have to look, I think, at how we use the major events unit budget in order to bolster our own industries here. Many of these events that you’ve talked about are put on by companies who come from outside Wales with their own staff and resources, lock, stock—major multinational companies like Lagardère, for example. What ambitions do you have, as a Cabinet Secretary, to use moneys from within the major events unit budget, to make sure that we invest in our own events companies, to make sure that we develop our own home-grown events industry that we can then export and leave a lasting economic impact?