We move on to the next item on our agenda, which is a statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure on the Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games homecoming. I call on Ken Skates to present the statement.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I welcome this opportunity to congratulate our Olympic and Paralympic athletes who represented Team GB and Paralympic GB at the 2016 Rio games. I am especially pleased that Welsh Government and the National Assembly for Wales will be hosting a public event outside the Senedd later this week, giving people from across Wales the chance to pay tribute to all their athletes, their coaches and support staff. We can all be extremely proud of their performances and the way that they acted as great ambassadors for sport and for Wales.

Overall, 15,000 athletes competed in this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games at Rio—a tremendous honour and achievement for all and the sports organisations, of course, that support them. The games gained worldwide attention and the athletes produced some breathtaking performances. Behind those performances, of course, is the years of training and hard work that they have put into their preparation. Their determination and desire to succeed embodies the values of sport and makes them great role models for the next generation and ambassadors for their sport and their country.

In terms of our Welsh athletes’ performances at Rio, we can say that our investment in elite sports development through Sport Wales continues to bear fruit. Welsh athletes won 18 medals across both the Olympic and Paralympic Games and in a wide range of sports, exceeding our expectations and providing some magical sporting moments for Welsh and British sport. The Rio games saw a new generation of Welsh athletes on the biggest sporting stage in the world with many debutants making a significant impact.

In the Olympics, Wales had 23 athletes competing in 11 sports, which is over 14 per cent of the Team GB total. Our athletes broke world records in the cycling team pursuit and successfully defended an individual title in taekwondo. Team GB became the first country in modern Olympic history to increase its tally of medals immediately after being the host nation.

In the Paralympic Games, we won two more gold medals than in London 2012 and we won medals in more sports. There were 26 athletes who competed, which exceeded our target, and nine of these were first time Paralympians and three medalled at their first games. That is quite an outstanding achievement. Disability Sport Wales have introduced a new campaign to identify new Paralympic athletes, called What’s Your Potential? and over 50 athletes are being monitored and developed.

Getting more talented athletes through the system and on to GB programmes is key to our future success and more and more countries are improving the service provided to medal-potential athletes, so it’s even more important that there are quality pathways in place that can help produce future medallists.

Although we are a relatively small country, we are a powerhouse within sport, continuing to aim high as our confidence and profile grows. We have a number of world champions and a constant stream of athletes who can compete at the highest level and who will now be setting their sights on the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, in just over 18 months’ time. This will be the next opportunity for them to compete and to represent Wales in a multisport event. I am confident that they will produce results of which we can be proud. We wish them all well.

Every successful elite athlete has to start somewhere, usually within a community setting and that’s why we are committed to ensuring that people have more and better quality sporting opportunities at a local community level. More participation helps to breed talent and success and I would like to thank all our Welsh Olympic and Paralympic athletes for helping to inspire and motivate people across Wales. Their performances symbolise all that is great and inspirational about the Olympic tradition and it is a great pleasure and privilege to have an opportunity to congratulate them all. The whole of Wales salutes them.

Thank you very much. Neil McEvoy.

Diolch, Ddirprwy Lywydd. I’d like to also congratulate our Welsh athletes who’ve made our nation so proud. This really is a golden age for Welsh sport and that shows again the winning mentality that we have in Wales. It’s interesting that there was a gap between the 1972 Olympics and the 2008 Olympics where not a single Welsh person won a medal. That was 36 years. But since Beijing, the medals keep coming home to Wales and it’s so important now that we continue to build on that success.

With that in mind, I’d like to follow up on some of the points that we spoke about last time in this Chamber. Firstly, your office should have now had a formal invitation to come and meet me and the kids in Grangetown who can’t afford to play sport there, and it really does sadden me to see empty sports pitches with children who want to play on them but don’t have the money to do so. I’m also told by parents that it costs £450 now for their child to represent Cardiff and Vale schools. You may know that Wales’s first Olympic gold medallist, Paulo Radmilovic, came from Cardiff. His parents ran the Bute Dock Tavern, just down the road on Bute Street, and he went on to win four Olympic gold medals. So, I’d like to arrange this visit as soon as possible so that, in future, Grangetown and their neighbours in Butetown, can again celebrate their own future Olympian.

I’d also like to invite you again to maybe think about how we can celebrate Billy Boston, another great sportsman from the docks, as we used to say back in the day, and went on to be the record try scorer in rugby league. I think it would be really good if this Government, the Assembly and Cardiff council could celebrate that.

I’d like to revisit the Government’s failure to bid for the Commonwealth Games, because it’s interesting that you state that Welsh athletes are now setting their sights on the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 18 months’ time. Because, in a very short-sighted decision, your Government has turned its back on the chance for us to bring the games home to Wales. The last time we spoke, you said that local authorities were unable to contribute to the costs of the games at this stage. So, I put in a freedom of information request to ask what official correspondence you’ve had with local authorities on the Commonwealth Games and the result came back and it stated, and I’ll quote this:

‘No formal requests or enquiries have been made by Welsh Government to local authorities for financial contributions to the 2026 Commonwealth Games.’

You may remember the Tony Blair who, I’m sure, remains something of a hero to many of you on the Government side of the Chamber. He was accused of running a sofa Government. Blair came in for stinging criticism for his informal decision making in the Butler report, where the lack of minuted meetings meant that the decision-making process could not be held up to proper scrutiny after the event. All this sounds very familiar to how this Labour Government is being run in Cardiff—

[Inaudible.]—question coming?

Yes. You claim to have asked local authorities if they could provide potentially millions, but there’s no formal request to scrutinise that. I believe Tony Blair would be very much at home in this Labour Government. So, my question is: are you now in a position to provide me with the formal minuted requests between the Welsh Government and local authorities for financial support for the Commonwealth Games? If not, will you commit to a formal review of the Welsh Government’s decision-making procedures?

I’d like to thank the Member for his questions and, first and foremost, recognise the congratulations that he has given to the golden age, as he put it, which is owed, in no small part, to the investment of the Welsh Government of course, as well as UK Sport and, indeed, Sport Wales. But it’s because of the Welsh Government’s relentless focus on raising standards in school sport, through 5x60 and Dragon Sport—again, both delivered in partnership with Sport Wales—that we’ve been able to achieve an increase in participation amongst young people in sport and physical activity. I’m glad that the Member recognised the excellent work of Welsh Government in this regard. It’s heartening.

In terms of the decision on the Commonwealth Games and the position of local authorities, I’m not sure why the Member can’t reflect on what I said last time, which was that the local authorities he refers to were actually on the steering group that determined the potential of a Commonwealth Games, and at no point were they able to contribute the resources that you say should’ve been there from them. If you believe local authorities should have offered money, you need to identify where in their budgets that money would’ve come from.

Moreover, is it your position that you, as a party, would wish to spend £1.3 billion to £1.5 billion hosting a Commonwealth Games? Is that your position? Because our position is very clear that, in the current context of tightening public resources, such a cost is difficult to shoulder. Instead, we, as a Welsh Government, wish to seek to influence a major change in the rules of the Commonwealth Games Federation that would enable dual and multicentre games to take place. That would enable us to not just host the games once, which is what the Member’s aspiration is—just once in a lifetime—but, potentially, on a number of occasions in a lifetime. Surely that constant exposure to elite sport is far better in motivating people to become physically active over the course of their lives than just one two-week event in their lives.

In terms of resources and pitch fees, I recognise that in parts of Wales—and I know that my colleague Lee Waters has raised this with me in this constituency—pitch fees are too high. We said, through the manifesto for our party in the election, that we wish to see, through remit letters, a greater role placed on investing in young people from deprived areas. It was a pledge that was part of a manifesto that led to our election and Government. We wish to see that pledge delivered, not just by Sport Wales, but by national governing bodies, and in partnership with local authorities. But, we also wish to deliver—and the Member may be aware of another pledge that was within the manifesto—a challenge fund specifically for community sport and community arts organisations and events and activities. So, we, more than ever before, are committed to engaging young people, not just in sport, but also in other forms of physical activity. We wish to get Wales moving and we wish to ensure that our success in international multisport games continues.

I would like to join the Cabinet Secretary in welcoming home all the Welsh athletes who contributed to this record-breaking Team GB medal haul at the Rio Olympics and Paralympic Games. As the Cabinet Secretary has said, this homecoming event is a great opportunity to thank these inspirational athletes and, of course, all those people who have been involved in training them and supporting them, and family members as well. I was particularly pleased that we had athletes from every part of Wales taking place and contributing to Team GB’s success in Rio this summer. I had thought it couldn’t get any better after the success we had in reaching the final stages of Euro 2016, and now, of course, we’ve got the Wales Olympic and Paralympic athletes to join in our celebrations and party as well.

But, of course, we mustn’t underestimate the way in which Welsh sporting success inspires the next generation. Sporting success plays a key role in encouraging participation in sport, particularly, as well, increasing public health and creating an ongoing legacy for our elite athletes. With this in mind, I do hope the Welsh Government will follow through on its commitment. I was pleased to see, in the programme for government last week, that line on hosting major sporting events—I was pleased to see that in there—because, of course, hosting such events can only create and support our economy, and lots of social change can take place as a result of hosting those kinds of events. I’ve heard your comments, Cabinet Secretary, with regard to the Commonwealth Games. I was disappointed. I just did feel that the Welsh Government, sort of, lacked ambition to host the Commonwealth Games. I would just ask you, perhaps, to square up those two issues with regard to the programme for government and hosting the games.

I’d perhaps ask the Cabinet Secretary this: would you agree with me that we must market Wales as a world-class sports venue, by particularly working closely with local government, transport operators and sports organisations to ensure that transport and facilities can cope with increased visitor numbers? Such major sporting events not only spark our national pride, but they also boost tourism levels in Wales. They can also, of course, support the broader public health agenda as well.

But I would like to just finish by congratulating again the athletes and welcoming them home this week at the event on Thursday. I also hope that the Welsh Government will support our elite athletes to enable them to go from strength to strength in the future.

I’d like to thank the Member for his contribution and I’d also like to recognise the incredible success of our national football team as well this summer. I think between the Paralympics, the Olympics and the Euros, we’ve had probably the best summer of sport for Welsh sportspeople in any of our lifetimes. Perhaps, if only we had an alpine winter climate, we could be expecting a good clutch of medals in two years’ time at the Winter Olympics.

It’s true that, in order to be good at a sport, you have to have motivation, you have to have an opportunity to participate, but you also have to have that support. The Member was absolutely right to identify coaches as being particularly important in gathering such a good number of medals at the Rio games.

In terms of major sporting events, and I’m pleased that the Member recognised the inclusion of the importance of hosting major events in the programme for government published last week, I’ve already been clear in stating our ambition to host a grand tour as well as the Volvo Ocean Race. Of course, next year, we will be hosting the world’s biggest one-day sporting event: the UEFA Champions League final. I challenge any Member to name a country of 3 million people or there or thereabouts that has hosted as many major sporting or cultural events as Wales has in the last decade. We have an incredibly proud record.

But, in terms of the Commonwealth Games, as I challenged the Member from Plaid Cymru, this is a huge commitment that would require between £1.3 billion and £1.5 billion to host. I know that Members have had an opportunity to be briefed by Commonwealth Games with regard to the work that was undertaken to look at the potential of hosting the 2026 games, and I hope that that briefing has allayed some of the concerns that the Member, and other Members, have had. I want to be clear that we wish to see changes to Commonwealth Games rules that would enable us to host in the future. Equally, the reason that I announced a sports facilities review is that we will be able to map out, not just for today but for the future, what facilities are required for the nation, so that we could then also potentially propose a bid in our own right, in the future, for the games. One thing has to be clear: where events take place has to match up with where we build the infrastructure and the facilities, because we cannot run the risk of investing heavily in infrastructure that would subsequently not be used. We wish to invest in the future of sport and physical activity, and I hope that that will then be reflected in more major events being hosted in Wales.

In terms of one more point, in terms of celebrating success—and this reflects on a point that the previous speaker made in terms of local sporting heroes—I think it’s essential next year that, as part of the Year of Legends, community groups and, indeed, local Members do all they can to promote the legends, whether it be in boxing, rugby, or whatever sport it might be—or a culture—within their communities and nationally. This is an opportunity for Wales to brand itself as a place that celebrates success and that promotes great achievement. I think, in the Year of Legends, we can do that in a sporting context as well as in a cultural context too.

I’m sure we all applaud the efforts of the Welsh athletes who competed in Rio, in both the Olympics and the Paralympics, whether they won medals or not, and I’m sure that the homecoming will be a great occasion.

The Minister refers, in his final paragraph, to the fact that sporting excellence begins with participation at grass-roots level, which other Members have alluded to earlier today in this debate. With that in mind, I would just ask the Government to remain mindful of the need to keep sporting avenues open to all. I have previously mentioned the problem of the shocking increases in the bowls club fees, both in Cardiff and elsewhere in Wales. Neil McEvoy has raised the issue of the cost of youngsters using 3G football pitches, which he’s mentioned again today. I’ve also highlighted the need to keep leisure centre fees down, now that many councils are outsourcing leisure centre operations to private companies. I know that the Welsh Government does connect sport with general health, and I know that you do have a strategy for increasing sporting activities among the wider population, but we need to tackle these kinds of basic problems if that strategy is to be effective, and if we are to ultimately have a healthy population here in Wales. So, I wonder what, specifically, can be done on these issues.

The other things that have been mentioned—the Commonwealth Games bid. I was, personally, quite circumspect about the decision not to proceed with that because I would rather see money invested in grass-roots sport rather than elite events. However, although I know you acknowledged that at the time, I did ask a question of you, Minister, which was: would any of the money saved from not proceeding with that bid actually be invested in grass-roots sport? So, I would raise that question again.

Finally—slightly on a tangent—Neil mentioned Paolo Radmilovic, the first Welsh Olympic gold medal winner. I think some of his medals were in water polo. It’s a sport that has always baffled me. I still don’t know how they get the horses into the water—perhaps you could enlighten me. Thank you.

I’m at a loss as well in terms of the sport that the Member refers to, but I do think that the Member makes a really important point: that you have to balance the investment in elite sport with investment in grass-roots sport, because it’s essential that every single person in society has an opportunity to access what I call the escalator of activity. It doesn’t matter at what level you are content with halting your performance, whether you are just going to be walking to the shops or whether you escalate it up to running every day and then eventually become an elite sportsperson, as long as you are active in some way. So, it’s absolutely vital that there is sufficient resources available at grass-roots level to enable people to participate as close to home as they possibly can or, indeed, in the great outdoors. So, in terms of investment, it roughly splits £1 for every £3—£1 invested in elite is met with £3 that’s invested in community sport. Community sport also incorporates, of course, now informal ways of participating in physical activity. So, it could be walking football, or street games, or touch rugby. What we’re trying to do is open opportunities to as wide a range of people as possible.

The Member rightly identified as well the importance of recognising people who performed in the Paralympics and who achieved great success, and I think Disability Sport Wales have in particular in recent years shown incredible success and made great progress in engaging more people in sport and physical activity. That was reflected in the eight medals that were won in the Rio games. I think that that was an astonishing success given that, back in London 2012, there were six medals. So to increase it by such a number is really to be welcomed by all.

In terms of the cost of the Commonwealth Games—and I recall that the Member broadly welcomed our position on this matter—it’s not that there would be money saved in not bidding for the games. What would happen is, had we proceeded with bidding for the games, then money would have had to have been identified from existing major expenditure groups. So, essentially, a cap would have had to have gone around Government, every department—education, health, transport; it would have gone to rural affairs, to communities—and contributions would have had to have been made. So, it’s not a saving as such that can be reinvested. But, as I’ve said to a previous speaker, the formation of the Wales well-being bond, which is aimed at investing in treatments and activities that prevent ill health, particularly mental illness, and also the initiative that we’re calling the challenge fund, will aim to increase overall investment in community sport and physical activity.

I’m really looking forward to Thursday’s homecoming celebrations. It’s only right and proper that this institution and that Welsh Government recognise the achievements—those amazing achievements—of our Welsh Olympians and Paralympians, and also give a chance for the people of Wales to join us in celebrating as well.

I’m particularly proud to represent a constituency that boasts not just a Paralympic medal winner, but an Olympic gold medal winner, too. Nineteen-year-old Sabrina Fortune from Bryn-y-Baal smashed her personal best and claimed bronze medal in the F20 shotput. I’m sure colleagues will join me here in offering our congratulations to Sabrina on her achievement.

And, of course, there’s Jade Jones, the double gold Olympic medal winner, ‘the headhunter’, ‘the fighter from Flint’, or, actually—should I say it how we say it in Flint—‘the fighter off Flint’. Jade’s home town is incredibly proud of all that she’s achieved. Back in August, the community came together to watch her fight as a whole, and to cheer Jade on to victory until the early hours. In fact, I was thinking that the next day we should have put a public order announcement out to say that anybody passing through Flint should go very quietly, because the whole town was in recovery mode.

The community came together once again just over a week ago for a homecoming celebration befitting Jade’s achievements. There was a civic service, an open-top bus tour around the town, and fireworks, with the grand finale being Flint castle looking amazing, being lit up in gold. I’d like to place on record thanks to the Cabinet Secretary for making my rather random request at the start of the early hours of the morning to light up the castle a reality, and people really did enjoy it as well—also, credit to Flintshire County Council and our town council for the organisation and turning things round in time.

Are you coming to a question?

Okay. I’m getting there, don’t worry.

We’re now looking at ways in which Flint can more permanently recognise Jade’s achievements and our pride in our famous hometown fighter, but also the legacy of what we do locally in terms of building on take-up of taekwondo and other sports. But I’m a little apprehensive about the suggestion I should get into the ring with Jade myself.

Of course, on a Wales-wide level, the most fitting way to recognise this achievement is to be able to build on that success and to create Paralympians and Olympians of the future. So, I’d urge the Welsh Government and all of us here to actually take a lead in making sure that that happens.

Can I thank the Member for her valuable contribution and recognise that Hannah Blythyn, I think, represents an area that probably has the highest concentration of Olympic medals currently in Wales? The success of Sabrina and Jade is quite astonishing and I’d like to send my congratulations direct to them as well. I know how important Jade Jones’s victory was to the community of Flint; I was present for part of the day. I know that the Member has greater staying power than me—you were present for the duration of Jade’s fights at Mountain Park Hotel in Flint. It was an incredible occasion that saw hundreds of people—a phenomenal number of young people—celebrating, let’s face it, an icon of the local area competing at the highest level. As well as friends and family and, I’m in no doubt, strangers to Jade, there were also people from the local taekwondo club and also her former coach. It may be perhaps an appropriate visit for us—myself and the local Member—to visit the club that Jade learned taekwondo at and at which now there is, I know, a huge number of young people taking up the sport.

Neil McEvoy urged the Welsh Government to recognise sports heroes—we will do that, not just through the Year of Legends, but on an ongoing basis. But I’d also urge Neil McEvoy to learn from Hannah Blythyn, who has represented her constituency superbly by ensuring that the castle in Flint, one of the most important elements of the historic environment in north-east Wales, was turned gold in recognition of Jade Jones’s phenomenal success. I think it’s essential that Government, that society in general, embraces the success of our sporting heroes, not just as a motivating factor for people to be more physically active, but also as a means of bringing people together—to unite people during a period when we are often fractious.

Thank you very much. And, finally, Julie Morgan.

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I would also like to congratulate all our Welsh athletes and I’m looking forward to the event on Thursday when we welcome them to the Senedd. They did perform absolutely outstandingly in Rio. Would the Cabinet Secretary agree that it’s vital that there are good sporting facilities available for young people to train? I’m sure he’s aware of the history of Llanishen reservoir in Cardiff North. Hannah Mills, who is from the Vale of Glamorgan, won gold in Rio with Saskia Clark in the women’s 470 sailing, and that’s where she learnt to sail—in Llanishen reservoir. A number of other sailors from the Llanishen sailing club have also gone on to professional sailing careers, including my constituent, Sean Evans, who was also at Rio as an Olympic sailing coach.

Would the Cabinet Secretary recognise the great achievements of the Llanishen sailing club, which offered sailing to all the local schools? Sadly, the Llanishen reservoir is now drained and not in operation. But, under the new ownership of Dŵr Cymru, we hope it’ll be restored to its former glory. So, would the Cabinet Secretary do what he can to encourage Dŵr Cymru to repeat the former glories of Llanishen reservoir when it was filled?

Can I mention to the Cabinet Secretary the extraordinary achievements of the Maindy Flyers, based in my colleague Jenny Rathbone’s constituency? My constituents, Owain Doull and Elinor Barker, both had gold medals in Rio and, of course, Geraint Thomas as well in two previous Olympics. So, there’s an outstanding achievement, basically, from the Maindy Flyers. These athletes had the encouragement from their schools, local comprehensive schools, but they also had the opportunities to train. That is what we want to extend to everybody. So, I don’t know if he’s got any other comments he can make on that wider extension of facilities and encouragement.

Well, I think it’s phenomenal, the success of Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark in the 470 sailing. They join a very exclusive group of Welsh women who’ve been crowned Olympic champions, which is steadily increasing, including Barker, Jones, Mills, Irene Steer and Nicole Cooke. And, also, of course, in the cycling team pursuit, Owain Doull and Elinor Barker, who both hail from the same cycling club, the Maindy Flyers in Cardiff, performed remarkably well. I think Owain was the youngest of the male quartet, and was described by Sir Bradley Wiggins as the most accomplished rider since Geraint Thomas. That is quite an attribute to be given by the world’s greatest cyclist—current cyclist. Of course, Elinor helped the Team GB girls defeat world champions USA with a third world record in the gold-medal race. Quite incredible achievements.

I am also aware of the work that the Member herself has done in terms of saving Llanishen reservoir, and I’d like to put on record how thankful I am that the constituency that she represents has such a dedicated Member, who is determined to open up opportunities for people to take up sport and physical activity.

Another great contribution that sport makes to life is that it often helps young people who are at risk of disengaging from formal education, or who have disengaged from education, to rediscover learning through the discipline of sport. For young people who have disengaged, it’s often difficult for them to see the woods for the trees, but, through sport and through regular participation, they can do, and that’s another role that our national governing bodies, that Sport Wales, and that sports clubs and organisations across Wales, do.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much for that. We’re actually into extra time, not that I’ve got any Fergie powers, but there we go.