Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:36 pm on 14 February 2017.
Well, the Welsh Revenue Authority was merely a twinkling in the eye 17 years ago. The issue is this: the function the revenue authority will perform has never been performed in Wales before. So, we shouldn’t be afraid of the fact that we do need to bring skills in from elsewhere to set up the authority and, ultimately, to train our own people in order that they are able to provide those skills in the future. But to criticise us for not having the foresight 17 years ago—up to 17 years ago—in terms of establishing an authority that no-one thought would ever be established at that point, I think is stretching things a bit too far.