Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:23 pm on 7 February 2017.
I suppose the first question I should ask you, Cabinet Secretary, is whether the information that Len McCluskey is asking for is already with you. In September, you answered questions in this Chamber on the situation at the Ford plant based on reassurances that you’d had in June that year. In particular, you said that Ford had told you that there was no surplus of labour in the short term. So, five months on, I’d like to know what you consider to be the definition of ‘short term’. One of the questions you didn’t answer in September was that of my party leader, Andrew R.T. Davies, about key dates for decisions and for investments. I’m wondering: are you any nearer being able to give us those key dates now? As Welsh Government’s conditional investment earmarked for Ford in Bridgend is based on the number of jobs it can secure over five years, how is the delay between, shall we say, September and now, and what looks like being an ongoing delay, affecting your ability to respond to big announcements? I’m thinking particularly with regard to your own budget.
Finally, Ford’s commitment was to 125,000 Dragon petrol engines with potential—that was your word at the time—for twice that number of units. So, did you succeed in your conversations with the head of Ford Europe’s powertrain unit in concluding how the demand for the Dragon engine can be stimulated? At the time, that was accepted to have nothing to do with Brexit. If you haven’t managed to come up with ideas about how demand can be stimulated, which of those alternative production ideas that you put forward to us in September looks like it could be the one that would come to Bridgend in the event of default on Dragon? That was a point that you didn’t answer when Russell George raised it. Thank you.