Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance – in the Senedd at 1:54 pm on 24 January 2018.
The Cabinet Secretary, like myself, is perennially youthful—we're seeing the horizon recede further from us as we get older—but I accept the general point that he makes. Given that adult social care costs are, on the Health Foundation's predictions, likely to rise by 4 per cent per annum for the next 20 years, and that costs should rise probably to about £2.5 billion by 2030, clearly there is here a potential massive funding problem for the Welsh Government. And therefore it's essential, in my opinion, if there is to be such a levy, that a fund should be created that can't be raided by Governments for other purposes. The Cabinet Secretary will remember that the National Insurance Act 1911—not remember because he was there at the time, but because he's a student of history—the whole basis of that scheme, which created national insurance in Britain, was to create a national insurance fund. Sadly though, that has been regularly raided ever since by the Treasury and the whole contributory principle has been undermined by Conservative Governments as well as by Labour Governments over the years, I think to the lasting disfigurement of the funding of social insurance in this country, and it would be a lot better if we were to hypothecate for a specific purpose. I know the dead hand of the Treasury has precluded this at Westminster but I hope, as a result of devolution, that the Welsh Government will be more enlightened in its consideration of these issues.