Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 6 December 2017.
Well, Llywydd, it is very interesting that Steffan Lewis raises that possibility. Back in 2016, at a meeting with finance Ministers from the UK Treasury, Scotland and, at that time, the Northern Ireland Executive, the Northern Ireland finance Minister specifically put forward a proposal for what he called, I think, a Celtic investment fund. He did so because he explained some of the real challenges that Northern Ireland was facing in using financial transaction capital.
Now, our ambition has always been to make the very best use of anything that comes to Wales, but there are challenges in using financial transaction capital, and the idea was to put it all together in a single fund that could then be used more flexibly and maybe for some larger investment purposes. To be fair, the UK Government said that they were willing to consider that further and to be part of a discussion about it, because I think that they too have an interest in making sure that best possible use is made of the funds that are available here.
Very soon after that meeting the Northern Ireland Executive ceased to exist, and it's been more difficult to pick up those discussions since because they were pretty much led by some work that had gone on in Northern Ireland. But, when there is an opportunity to pick that up, I'm sure there will be a shared interest, certainly from Wales and Scotland. But, as I say, I think there was a genuine enough appetite in the Treasury to have a discussion about most effective use of the funds that are available.