Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:05 pm on 14 May 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:05, 14 May 2019

Well, Llywydd, I don’t see how the Member makes any claim at all to be what he refers to as a 'neutral observer'. I hope that his remarks on Cardiff railway station are an indication that he will join us in calling for the devolution of those responsibilities, so that we could discharge them directly here in Wales. I’m not sure if that is his party’s policy, but, if it were, I’d be very glad to know it.

And, where we are able to act, as in the bus station alongside the railway station in Cardiff, then it is the Welsh Government that has acted to ensure that the funding is available and the plan is in place and that the bus station will be developed in a way that, provided we get the investment from the UK Government, that will turn into the transport hub that we have always wanted to see, with an interchange between different forms of public transport right here in the centre of our city.

As far as the point that he ended with, about the Countess of Chester, let’s be clear: that was a decision of the Countess of Chester—a unilateral decision by that provider, which we have now had to spend weeks unravelling and putting back together again the plan that they had shoved off the wall. Now, you will have seen the statement that the health Minister has put out, explaining how, by taking the actions we have taken, we now have an agreement through the Department of Health that will make sure that the Countess of Chester goes on treating Welsh patients. But the decision not to treat Welsh patients was unilaterally and, as I would say, irresponsibly made by them, and certainly not by us.