Part of 2. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:44 pm on 11 October 2016.
Thank you for answer, First Minister. I very much welcome the sentiment that you’ve conveyed there. Many of our problems in Wales don’t stem from certain people moving in to the country but they stem from the fact that many of our young people move out and don’t return, and this is especially true of graduates, where we have a lower retention rate than any other UK nation. There’s been a lot of focus on immigration, particularly around the debate on Brexit, yet very little attention has been given to out-migration. Plaid Cymru believes that graduates should be able to live and work where they choose, but we should also be able to incentivise some of them to come back so that we can see a return on our public investment, if you like, in their education. We are the only party to have proposed a mechanism, through higher education, to incentivise students to return to work, and you’ll be aware that we put forward those proposals ahead of May’s election. In that election, you had no policy on this and you claimed that Plaid Cymru would charge students fees. If you implement the Diamond review, fees are likely to be charged by your Government. Will you now accept that we do need to incentivise graduates to return to Wales after study? If you do agree with me, what do you intend to do about it?