Tata Steel

Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:12 pm on 4 December 2019.

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Photo of Bethan Sayed Bethan Sayed Plaid Cymru 3:12, 4 December 2019

I know that many of the questions have been asked but I know, from my perspective, I don't appreciate the drip, drip of information that is coming about in this way, especially in the lead-up to Christmas. It's not progressive of the company to do this and it's also eroding the confidence of the workforce. As I said last time, it's all been pretty secretive. Many of the people talking to me are not getting any clear information about what is happening. I e-mailed Tata when they sent the press release out to us, asking for the breakdown for Wales. Surely, if they've made a breakdown for the UK, which has emanated from the European job-loss breakdown, they can come up with some form of figure for Wales so that we can actually put heads together and try to understand how this will impact Wales. So, while they may have put a lot of resource into the local area—and without a doubt, they have—I think the trust in the company will erode if they're going to continue to act in this manner. 

I just wanted to say, from the last time, I think you misconstrued my question a tiny bit with regard to the investment. I wasn't saying we shouldn't invest but I'm saying, as has been reflected by what Suzy Davies said, if we are putting investment in, we need to be 100 per cent clear that plans are going to go ahead, as you've said, Minister, for the future retention of those plants here in Wales. So, my question is: how confident are you that we can get to those agreements so that we can ensure that agreements we've made between Plaid Cymru and the Labour Party, in terms of the power plant and investment that we need, can go ahead in this very precarious environment? Not only are we in the dark, but the people who work there are in the dark as well, and we are not in a good situation to be able to scrutinise effectively in those particular predicaments.

I think most of the questions have been asked already, but I would urge you, with whoever is in existence in the UK Government, whether it's officials or the Prime Minister, to look at how we can reconvene the steel workforce planning on a UK level, so that we can work together on this and make sure that the future of the steel industry is alive and kicking in Wales, as opposed to being eroded time and time again.