Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:04 pm on 15 January 2019.
Clearly, unless there's an extension to article 50, 29 March has always been the date at which we leave the European Union. The question is on what basis does that happen? I'm afraid that the notion that leaving without a deal is just one scenario that we could just plan for is for the birds. The truth of it is that leaving without a deal is very bad news for Wales and very bad news for the United Kingdom. Even the Government's own economic projections tell you that, and we face an economy that is 10 per cent smaller than it would have been under a 'no deal' scenario. That's not just a statistic. That's people's jobs, people's livelihoods, people's businesses and so on. [Interruption.] It's not scaremongering. The Government's own figures tell us that there will be economic damage as a consequence of that outcome. So, this is not just one modelling scenario where plans will be able to deal with this in its entirety. What we are doing is making sure that the plans that we are able to make—either here in Wales on our own, or working together with the UK Government and other devolved administrations—are being put in place. And, as the likelihood of a 'no deal' Brexit has become more apparent, so our preparations have been intensified to deal with that. But I just want to be absolutely clear: no amount of planning and preparation is going to be able to mitigate the damage that a 'no deal' Brexit would cause to Wales and to the United Kingdom. I'm afraid that's just the reality of it.
On the question of communications, it will be important for us in the weeks ahead to make sure that the Assembly is kept appraised of developments and has the opportunity, obviously, of holding Ministers to account in relation to that. I am afraid that I didn't respond to the point that Huw Irranca-Davies mentioned at the end of his question. So, since it relates to communications, I'll touch on that as well now. I mentioned in my statement the launch in the next few days of the portal, Paratoi Cymru. The objective there is to provide an authoritative, comprehensive and single source of information for people in Wales to understand what actions we are taking as a Welsh Government in relation to preparedness, and it'll contain material from the UK Government where that provides a fuller picture. We want to make sure that that is provided in a way that is both timely, but also contextualised, and in a way that takes into account communications from the UK Government and others as well.