5. 5. Plaid Cymru Debate: Economic Development

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:31 pm on 14 September 2016.

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Photo of Mr Simon Thomas Mr Simon Thomas Plaid Cymru 3:31, 14 September 2016

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I think, in bringing forward this debate, and, earlier this week, in publishing our programme for opposition, Plaid Cymru was responding to a real need that we have now in Wales. I think it’s fair to say that those in power, and those responsible for calling the referendum on the future membership of the European Union, did not prepare for this scenario in one shape or form whatsoever. They certainly didn’t prepare for what would be the implications of this scenario for devolved administration, and a devolved Government here in Wales. I think we’ve seen a lot of that over the last few months, and it has been disappointing that the Welsh Government has not responded in a coherent way—as has been pointed out already by Llyr Gruffydd, and Adam Price—and I hope that that will improve now we have the Cabinet Secretary responsible for the sub-committee that is responding to this challenge.

But Plaid Cymru is certainly ready for it. We didn’t want this scenario, but, as the party that represents Wales, and wants to seek to represent all parts of Wales, we want to make sure that we take the best opportunity from this position. And if the kaleidoscope has been shaken up—and I didn’t really want to quote Tony Blair, but there we are—if it has been shaken up, then we need to make sure that the pieces reset in a way that makes sense for our economy, our society, and our environment. And I think Adam Price has set out already how clearly we are prepared to do that. We will, obviously, work with the Welsh Government. We already have arrangements in place with the Welsh Government to try and deliver on some of these ideas, but we also want to seek to lead the Welsh nation in how we respond to the situation we’re in.

There are two things that I particularly want to mention here this afternoon. One is around our future as an energy nation, and the second is how we can respond from the point of view of food production, environmental services, and our farming communities. There is no doubt that we’ve gone off the pace in what we’ve done as a nation in the last 10 years as regards energy and renewable energy. We sit in Cardiff Bay, in a capital city created by carbon energy—created by coal, mainly—and yet we haven’t had the devolution dividend that Adam mentioned in terms of renewable energy either. At one stage, we were ahead of the game, but only this week, the Committee on Climate Change said that Scotland is now leading the way for the UK as regards dealing with climate change, and is ahead of the game with renewable energy.

We have 1,200 miles of glorious coastline—which some of us will be seeing next week in New Quay, with the committee—deep sea ports, which are extremely important for energy development and capture, and Welsh waters that could be worth, just for marine energy alone, £3.7 billion to the UK economy by 2020. Cardiff Business School has estimated that we could have 1 GW of capacity developed in the next two decades. And central to this, of course, is the potential of a tidal lagoon in Swansea bay, and, from that, other tidal lagoons being developed in the Severn estuary.

I understand the Government is meeting with Charles Hendry, who’s leading the review of tidal lagoons on behalf of—he hasn’t been sacked by Thereasa May yet; everyone else appointed by Cameron has been sacked by Theresa May, but he hasn’t been sacked yet. So, if he’s still there next week, and the Government does meet with him, I hope they really impress that this review has to take on board how important this infrastructure project is for Wales, in terms of our building skills capacity, in terms of what we are ready to do with Tata Steel, and the deep port at Port Talbot as well, and, indeed, how we can develop our renewable energy through a bay lagoon. I’ll certainly give way to Huw Irranca.