Thank you very much, Llywydd. It’s a great pleasure to lead on this debate in the name of Plaid Cymru on the north Wales economy and, in fact, the broader need for Welsh Government to treat north Wales more equitably—something that a number of people feel that they haven’t been able to do at all for a number of years by now.

Now, the United Kingdom is acknowledged and recognised as an unequal state—one of the most unequal in Europe, where investment, of course, is focused on one small part of that state at the expense of the other parts. In fact, we live in the state in the European Union where we have the wealthiest area in Europe in addition to some of the poorest areas, and that is following the failures of consecutive Governments of every hue in the United Kingdom, and, of course, that is a topic of great disappointment and frustration to a number of us. But there is a risk too that Wales is falling into the same trap, and that we are going down a similar unfortunate route. When the referendum was won to establish this Assembly 20 years ago, and there’s been a great deal of looking back and commemorating that over the past few months, there was a great deal of hope throughout Wales that we as a nation could not only start making decisions for ourselves but, of course, that we could do things differently. But you only need look at the Government’s figures themselves on capital expenditure per capita per region in Wales to see the inequality in investment. Since 2013, residents in north Wales have received over £360 less per capita than those in the south-east of Wales, for example. And the residents of mid and west Wales are in a worse situation, where they have missed out on over £520 per capita in comparison.

Now, it must be emphasised—I’m sure that some people will try to portray the picture in this manner—that it’s not our intention today, or in any other place when we highlight the failures of the Government to spread the wealth more equally across Wales, to try to create divisions between regions and areas of Wales. I certainly do not rue having investment in Cardiff and south Wales, along the M4 corridor, or anywhere else, but there is frustration when I don’t see equivalent investment, or sometimes even relatively equivalent investment, in north Wales. Our intention in this debate is to underline the need to unite our nation by ensuring that we have a country that shares the advantages of devolution more equally. And I must say that the impression that I get is that this feeling in north Wales that everything goes to Cardiff has never been stronger, and that is certainly what I hear across the region that I represent. And I don’t think that this is unique to the national situation. There are microcosms of that existing in local authorities throughout the whole of the country. I live in Denbighshire and I hear people daily complaining and saying that everything goes to Rhyl and the rural side of the county is losing out. You have to be broad-minded enough to accept that there is an element of perception aligned to this phenomenon, but I also have to acknowledge that there is more than an element of reality existing on a national level in this context, and we need to change that. But in order for that to happen, of course, we must ensure that investment does reach every corner of Wales, in order to put the infrastructure in place so that the whole of Wales can prosper.

Since the industrial revolution, north Wales has been a successful economic powerhouse. We have a very able workforce in north Wales, a very productive one, with specialisms such as aerospace, engineering, food and the environment, and it all comes together and works extremely effectively with our excellent universities and colleges. The tourism sector is one that has changed significantly in north Wales over the years. We have to acknowledge that. By now, north Wales has overtaken other areas and countries such as the Lake District and Cornwall, and all of these are very exciting developments that show the innovation of north Wales, and the potential that exists in realising that. North Wales has excellent opportunities to grow its economy, and all the ingredients are present for a lively, vibrant economy, but in order for that to happen, of course, we must receive the support required to unlock that potential.

If you talk to any one of the region’s companies or any particular sector, you will hear a consistent theme in terms of the complaint that you hear, namely the fundamental weakness in the infrastructure of the north Wales region. The ability of our roads to cope is poor, and there were queues of six miles along the A55 this afternoon—the main route of north Wales and one of the major trans-European routes, of course, gridlocked for a period during the day. Public transport , from buses to the rail network, is weak, to say the least, and the quality of the 4G phone reception signal, let alone any other ‘G’, is extremely poor in some areas. Broadband is also painfully slow and weak in many parts of north Wales, and I can speak to that from personal experience.

The state of our roads means that it’s not easy for our producers to get their product to market, and we were talking earlier about tourism. In north Wales we have, of course, Zip World, Bounce Below, Surf Snowdonia, the best-quality mountain biking and white-water canoeing that are second to none, and all of them attract good money to their areas, but try to travel from one to the other on public transport and I’ll tell you that it’s almost impossible to do that.

Dyma ble y gall buddsoddiad gan Lywodraeth uchelgeisiol sy’n ceisio rhoi hwb i Gymru gyfan wneud gwahaniaeth allweddol wrth gwrs. Mae dull o lywodraethu sy’n canolbwyntio ar Gaerdydd wedi gweld sefydliadau newydd yn cael eu creu ar hyd coridor yr M4 ar draul rhannau eraill o Gymru. Roedd yr Awdurdod Cyllid Cymru newydd yn enghraifft dda, os gofynnwch i mi, o gyfle a gollwyd. Penderfynodd y Llywodraeth, wrth gwrs, y dylai gael ei leoli yn Nhrefforest ac roedd hynny, wyddoch chi, yn iawn i bobl Trefforest, ond roedd teimlad amlwg yn Wrecsam fod cyfle wedi ei golli. Rydym yn gwybod bod CThEM yn cau swyddfa’r dreth yn Wrecsam—mae dros 300 o weithwyr yn debygol o golli eu swyddi yno. Roedd ganddynt lawer o’r sgiliau perthnasol, a’r cwestiwn y mae’r bobl yno’n ei ofyn yw: ‘Wel, pam na ddaeth yma pan oedd y cyfle hwn yn cynnig ei hun?’