It isn’t, according to her.

Further education—a fortnight ago, the Senedd voted in favour of increasing the funding available to further education. The Government needs to respect the views of the Senedd in this decision. That was my message to the Cabinet Secretary in a letter following that vote. I’ve received a response yesterday noting that additional funding for salaries is available, but I don’t think that that is sufficient, and neither does it reflect the spirit of the vote taken here a fortnight ago, so I would ask him, therefore: what is the Government’s intention in terms of taking clear action on that vote, and how much additional funds can FE expect?

There has been an agreement in place—there was a two-year agreement, and this will be the last time that Plaid Cymru will collaborate with the Government in this Assembly, I’m sure, so I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on those agreements. We’re very proud of what we have delivered through those budgetary agreements—£0.5 billion in financial commitments for priorities from our 2016 manifesto, more than any opposition party in the Assembly has ever delivered. It includes an additional £40 million for mental health services. It does mean that medical education will be introduced in Bangor from next year on. There is greater support for Welsh businesses in preparing for Brexit. There’s significant funding for the Urdd camps, thanks to the agreement with Plaid Cymru. And I’m pleased to hear confirmation this afternoon of additional capital funding to develop proposals for a contemporary art gallery and football museum, which were the result of a feasibility study that came about as a result of our budgetary agreement. This is what delivering as an opposition party looks like. That is what it means to be responsible and to work in a mature manner in order to secure improvements to people’s lives—those people who we represent. But, as I said, this is Labour’s budget, and it’s Labour who will decide whether it is passed as it is or not.

We’re moving to a new period now in our history as a nation—in the history of devolution too. The devolution of taxation powers is entirely right and will lead to greater scrutiny, more detailed scrutiny, of our processes and the budgetary decisions taken by the Welsh Government. The Government is not only a spending body now and we are evolving to a period where that balance of receipts into the Welsh coffers will be balanced and jointly scrutinised alongside the expenditure decisions, and that’s how it should be. But it does mean a very real responsibility on the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, and that’s why getting that balance and ensuring that the priorities are right is so important. And that’s why we’re so disappointed with the draft local government settlement specifically, and why we’re asking for a reconsideration of that, even at this eleventh hour.

Some taxes have already been devolved, and it’s fair to say from our work as the Finance Committee that, to a great extent, it is too early to assess the impact that those new taxes are having on the expenditure of the Welsh Government and the decision that the Welsh Government needs to take. Now, taking responsibility for a percentage of income tax will be a key and substantial step forward, and it is a step that I and my party have supported in the long term. There are elements of risk, of course, as Scotland has experienced recently, but I have no doubt that the incentive will be there now for the Government to innovate and to raise the bar in terms of economic performance targets, to raise the bar in terms of what the Government is seeking to deliver through its budget. It’s also clear that it’s not the Labour Government that will deliver the necessary ambition for us.