Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 1:50 pm on 22 January 2020.

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Photo of Helen Mary Jones Helen Mary Jones Plaid Cymru 1:50, 22 January 2020

Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. It's my pleasure to address this Chamber for the first time in my new role as the shadow Minister for the economy, tackling poverty and transport.

I was interested to hear the Minister say in his response to Russell George that he feels that our economy is doing well and we have to accept that, yes, we do have a low rate of unemployment. But I wonder if the Minister would accept that that reflects underemployment—many people doing part-time jobs. It reflects a situation where many families are working very hard for very low wages, and while they may be employed, they are hardly living well when we have a third of our children in poverty. I think one of the things that I very much hope in this role is that we will avoid any complacency from the Welsh Government, because while things may be better than they might have been without some Welsh Government interventions, as I say, we still have a third of our children living in poverty, and the majority of those children living in poverty have working parents, sometimes two working parents.

I want to turn to a specific major recent Welsh Government investment. Given the scale of the Welsh Government investment and stake in Aston Martin, can I ask the Minister what assessment he has made of the recent situation, the developing situation, with regard to the company's position?