Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance – in the Senedd at 1:37 pm on 14 November 2018.
Well, I understand the point that Angela Burns makes about the need to make sure that as many people as possible in Wales are in work and earning good wages. But she will understand as well that the question raised by Dawn Bowden was: what if there are fewer people of working age in Wales in the future? Even if all those people are working and all earning good money, if there are fewer of them, then the implication of that is that that would lead into a smaller tax take in the future. A strong economy is really important, but so is the number of people we have of working age. That's what the population projections focus on.
I agree with the more general point she made, that, as we think of using our fiscal powers for the future, we need to do so in a way that supports our economy and finds ways of helping that tax base to grow.