Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:27 pm on 24 January 2017.
In terms of the White Paper, arrangements will be made to present the White Paper officially to the UK Government. That’s something we’re looking at at present. In terms of collaboration with other Governments—well, with Northern Ireland that isn’t possible at the moment because of the current situation there. With Scotland, historically the Scottish response has been, ‘Well, we’re considering an alternative pathway, namely independence, so there’s not much point collaborating on a constitutional convention’. We hope things will change, but that was the situation in the past.
In terms of what happens in the JMC, well, of course, the JMC itself is the place where discussion happens, or will happen, on projects such as ERASMUS+, Horizon 2020 and INTERREG, ultimately. We’ve already signalled that these will be something that we would wish to remain part of. In terms of Ireland, I will be going to Ireland in the next few weeks to meet with the Taoiseach. We have a close relationship with Ireland itself, and we must ensure that that relationship remains in place. I will also be visiting the United States at the end of next month. I always tend to go to Washington on St David’s Day, and that will be the case this year as well. The United States is a crucial market for Wales. They are the biggest investors in the Welsh economy and it’s crucial that that investment continues, bearing in mind the comments made by President Trump last week.
In terms of things having to change, at the moment it’s very difficult to attract investment from any company that wishes to be involved in manufacturing because they’re not sure what kind of access they will have to the European Union or the European market. There are some companies where that isn’t a factor—engine maintenance companies, for example, or companies working in parts of the market where it isn’t necessarily crucial to them. That, of course, is where we have to look, at the moment, in order to attract investment, because of the fact that there is that uncertainty as to what the nature of the relationship between the UK and the European Union will be in future. But the point I’ve always made is that Wales is still open for business, and we still visit countries. A number of Ministers will visit a number of nations on St David’s Day to sell Wales. One of the things we want to ensure is that people don’t get the impression that our doors are closed in terms of investment. Although there is uncertainty at the moment, we still welcome investment that creates jobs of the highest quality here in Wales.