Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:53 pm on 5 March 2019.

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Photo of Gareth Bennett Gareth Bennett UKIP 1:53, 5 March 2019

Yes. I certainly don't disagree with you on that point, and I did state that we do need to move away from that scheme. I'm just flagging up the possibility that, in the short term, we may need to commit to some form of direct payment as part of payments to Welsh farmers in the interim, before we develop longer term schemes. And, of course, they must be robustly modelled—[Interruption.] They must be robustly modelled before we move to new schemes. So, clearly, if we are serious about going towards new schemes, we have to have a look at the modelling. There have been concerns about the pilot schemes that you are going to get, some of which are up and running. Now, do you think that these pilot schemes are moving quickly enough? Are they robust enough and are they in a wide enough area of Wales so that we can move ahead with your planned timetable to the new payment system?