10. Plaid Cymru debate: Young people and communities in Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:31 pm on 14 March 2018.

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Photo of Mr Simon Thomas Mr Simon Thomas Plaid Cymru 5:31, 14 March 2018

I'm grateful. I don't think I used that figure—I think it came from the Conservatives—but you've put it on the record, in that regard.

Let me turn to some of the individual ideas that were put forward in the debate. Lee Waters, when he talked about the foundational economy, I agreed with him completely. And I think when Rhun talked about health and social care—that is an aspect of the foundational economy that we should be working with. It is one of the clearest ones that has been set out for that. To reflect a little bit about what the Minister has just said as well, any kind of arrangement by which three quarters of our young people studying medicine are leaving Wales when we have such a gap of at least 1,000 doctors and 5,000 nurses to have here in Wales—we need to address that. Any way that we look at the foundational economy needs to go with that.

I don't disagree with Lee Waters about precision agriculture. What I would say to him is that I hope that he soon will be in opposition, and I mean that in many senses of the word, when he will be in a position to negotiate with a Plaid Cymru Government and realise that when you are in opposition and you negotiate, you negotiate the money but the detail is down to Government. They're the operational specialists here. His remarks, I think, were more directed to the Cabinet Secretary. What I would say to him is: I know—and I've visited many farms in the hands of young people where that precision agriculture is taking place, or at least some ideas around it are taking place, working with higher education institutions, working with the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences—the best work there. He wants a strategic approach. I'd agree with him. But, as I said, it's for his own Government to bring some focus here. We bring the focus on the money, the Government brings the focus on the delivery. That's the way opposition and Government works.

Llyr was very clear around the realisation of the Diamond review, and though we support it and were part of the Diamond review, we now need to see the implementation of a key recommendation, which is how you attract young people back into Wales. He also mentioned the Llwybro project, which is one that I used to follow with great interest. It's unfortunately lapsed and we do need something like that to give us the intelligence so that we can work around building young people in our communities. It's something that Leanne Wood also referred to when she talked about the resilience of young people and their ability to build our communities as key parts of that. 

I think I am beaten by the clock. If I can just close with a classic example, really, of the dilemma we're facing, because the Minister mentioned a particular jeans company in west Wales, Hiut jeans—however they pronounce it—the old Howies, as were. I don't own a pair of their jeans, I can assure you. I'm not up there with Meghan Markle at all in that regard. But look what happened there. That company came about after the closure of a factory that manufactured jeans that employed 400 people in Cardigan. Nearly 20 years ago now, that factory closed, 400 people were put on the scrap heap. Some of them—some of them—got some artisan jobs, going into a new company called Howies and building up from that, and then into the Huit jeans and so forth. Wonderful. We want to see that entrepreneurship and we want to see it happening. But we also lost 400 jobs—a major part of the economy. That example encapsulates completely what's positive and great about entrepreneurship and young people, but what is also weak and foundationally underperforming in the Welsh economy. We have to get the two, and some of this debate has been praising the one and ignoring the other, and vice versa. The two have to work together if we're going to have vibrant communities here in Wales.