Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 1:49 pm on 20 November 2019.

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Photo of Nick Ramsay Nick Ramsay Conservative 1:49, 20 November 2019

I underestimated the amount with my 41 per cent, so I'm sure 45 per cent is more accurate. But leaving aside the reasons, some of which you detailed in terms of how the European funding works, that is still only 45 per cent at this juncture and I know that it's not just me with concerns about this; I know that members of the farming community have also expressed concerns. With Brexit well under way many farmers have been holding off from making investment decisions, so funding such as RDP has had an important role to play in keeping farming sustainable. 

Many farmers, Minister, and many in our rural communities feel that an opportunity has been lost here. I appreciate that it might have been lost in other parts of the world as well, but they certainly feel that the opportunity has been lost and that the focus has been taken off that transformational change part of the agenda, which was there early on. It certainly seems to have been watered down by modifications to the plan and changes to the co-financing obligation that were there at the outset. If you look at sustainable production grants, they appear to have been oversubscribed, and there's been a lack of SPG windows.

Given that farming is the backbone of the Welsh economy and a huge part of our cultural identity here in Wales, and so important to the large part of Wales that's in our large rural areas, do you agree that the Welsh Government must now take the opportunity, get back to that message of delivering transformational change for our farming industry, do this as a matter of urgency, so that Welsh farmers and those in our rural communities can be confident of the sustainability of their industry in the future?