Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:15 pm on 3 April 2019.
The WRA, as Rhun ap Iorwerth said, has set a very high bar, but, of course, we wouldn't expect any different. And it will be a challenge to maintain that, but’s that, of course, is what I think we need to ensure will now happen. And the response from the Secretary of State, as nearly everyone has said, to the request to give evidence—the numerous requests over recent years to appear before the Finance Committee—is very disappointing. The offer to meet with us individually undermines, I think, whichever rationale the Secretary of State has for not appearing before the committee, because it is tempting for us as eight Assembly Members to meet individually eight times. We’ll go to London to do that if we have to, and, certainly, the committee will go anywhere in order to ensure that there is transparency and that there is accountability from that direction as well.
The basic message, I think, from me here is: if we can continue over the coming years to put fiscal devolution into practice in the way that it has been implemented so far, then, in my opinion, we will, as an institution, as we approach the twentieth anniversary of this Assembly, be worthy, I hope, of being called a Senedd. Thank you very much.