I don’t think that answers my question, and to be honest, it is a briefer response than I got from the First Minister the other day when I asked the same question. But, the answer I got was just as lacking in substance as that one, and I have to say that attempts by Ministers, time and time again, to refuse to answer simple questions is an insult to this Assembly.

Work has been done on the cost by a number of different organisations. Work was presented to the Welsh Local Government Association by the highly respected expert Professor Malcolm Prowle recently, with some organisations estimating that the restructuring proposals could cost up to £268 million. The research by Professor Prowle also provides evidence from England, and international evidence, that demonstrates that merging and restructuring local government has negative financial impacts. Is the truth, therefore, that either you haven’t carried out any assessment of the cost, or you are refusing to release that information? And that, in turn, deprives local government and this Assembly of those crucial facts that we need during this debate.