Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:31 pm on 24 January 2017.
Cabinet Secretary, I do find the criticisms of the lack of an evidence base coming from Plaid Cymru rather ironic when they’ve used the budget process to insist on £50 million for a road scheme with very low benefit to cost ratios to shore up their political base. Any concerns I had about this policy have been assuaged by the changes you’ve made, and I very much welcome the extra targeting that you put in place, and I warmly welcome extra funding for schools. In my constituency, schools have been having to make redundancies last year, and again this year; a £3.7 million cut by the Plaid Cymru council, and a potential 135 members of staff losing their jobs. So, what safeguards can you put in place to make sure that the money that’s going to be targeted at class size reduction isn’t swallowed up by softening the blow of Plaid cuts in Llanelli?