Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 1:59 pm on 13 February 2019.
Can I thank the Member for his question, and also say how grateful I am for his support of the development bank? As an opposition Member, it would be very easy—and I'm sure it's very tempting at times—for him to be critical, simply because he's an opposition Member, of anything that the Welsh Government does. I do recognise his support for the good work of the development bank, and I look forward to seeing the EIS committee carry out a thorough investigation or inquiry into the work of the development bank and the benefits that have been accrued so far.
The Member raises a very important point about how we use money, what proportion is recycled and what proportion is returned to the Welsh Government. And when an individual fund reaches the end of its life, any realised or accrued capital is generally dealt with in one of two ways. First of all, we've got financial transactions capital. That has to be paid back to central finance and, ultimately, back to Her Majesty's Treasury, and repayment schedules are agreed with the Development Bank of Wales to this effect. However, on the other hand, we have core capital that can be recycled within the fund on an evergreen basis, and it's our desire to see as much of that recycled as possible. But it should be stated—and this may sound obvious, but it should be restated—that there are rules relating to the use of returns from EU funding, which state that it must be used for similar purposes as originally intended. So, again, it can be continued to be used for ongoing investment in small and medium-sized enterprises.