Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:47 pm on 29 January 2019.
May I ask the Trefnydd to discuss with the Minister for the economy whether it's possible to issue a further statement, preferably an oral statement, to this Assembly, following the announcement made that the Schaeffler plant in Llanelli is in fact going to close? I'm grateful to the Minister for his written statement yesterday, but we'd appreciate an oral statement, because I and, I'm sure, other Members, particularly those who represent that area, would like to be able to ask more about the specifics of the support that's going to be provided to the 220 workers and their families who are facing redundancies. I'm sure that the Welsh Government is very well aware that these are not the kinds of jobs that we can afford to lose from Llanelli, or indeed from anywhere in Wales. So, we'd appreciate the opportunity to ask more about the specifics of support and of what work the Welsh Government will be doing with the local authority and with others to try and find suitable replacement employment, both for individuals, but employment opportunities.
I'd also appreciate the opportunity to ask the Minister what lessons may have been learnt from this process. Was there anything more that the Welsh Government could have done to work with this company, perhaps at an early stage, to persuade them to stay and to explore further what may need to be done in a post-Brexit environment to work with international companies to make sure that jobs of this quality are not lost?