Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 1:48 pm on 10 July 2019.
I think the Member believes that Welsh Government had a greater involvement than it did. There was no collaboration whatsoever: we did not promise money, we did not give money to this project. Any request for funding would have led to a thorough, and as the Member identifies, ruthless process of due diligence. And I’ve already identified one project here in questions today that underwent that thorough process. And despite vociferous support and pressure—indeed, from the Member’s own party, it has to be said, in particular the leader, who said that perhaps we should short-circuit in some way the due diligence process, I stayed firm; I made sure that the taxpayers’ interest was first and foremost considered by the Welsh Government. I will do that again and again. If they’d asked for money, if there had been any request for money for this particular project, the same approach and principles would have been taken forward.