Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:58 pm on 16 January 2018.
I think there are dangers in Transport for Wales engaging in that way with a bidder. There has to be distance between Transport for Wales and the bidders themselves. It is a matter for Abellio Rail Cymru to put themselves in a situation where they are confident that their bid can move forward, and discussions will continue along those lines in terms of how that can be done. We know there was a profit warning in July. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I don't think anybody, let alone the UK Government, could have known the scale of the problems within Carillion. Clearly, they were unprepared, and I think that many would have found themselves in that situation. I think the feeling might have been that Carillion was too big to fail, but, unfortunately, we know that isn't the case. Nevertheless, we are talking about a part of one of the consortium bidders. It's a question now to see whether that part can be replaced.