Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 10 January 2018.
In many respects, as I outlined to Russell George, the approach that's been taken by this Government and that was taken by the previous Government has already led to a record level of low unemployment, record levels of employment, record low levels of inactivity, but what we need to do is make sure that more people get into work so that they're not caught in a poverty trap, a poverty trap that's been made worse through, what, eight years now of austerity measures. The path into work is the best pathway out of poverty, and our objective is to make sure that we don't just create more jobs for people who are out of work, we create more high-quality jobs. But, of course, on top of that, in order for people to access those jobs, we need to tear down other barriers, barriers concerning childcare and a lack of appropriate transport to get people to and from work. But through one of the most ambitious childcare offers anywhere in Europe, and through reforms to local public bus services and the new rail franchise, I'm confident that we can address those two big barriers to getting people into work and staying in work.