6. Statement by the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:38 pm on 13 May 2020.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 5:38, 13 May 2020

Thank you, Mandy Jones. I don't think we've been really slow at all; I think Welsh Government has reacted as quickly as possible. As I said in earlier answers to Andrew and to Llyr, there are legal hoops that you have to jump through. That's just how it is when you're dealing with public money, and I think you would be one of the first people to criticise us if we didn't do it properly. So, it was really important to get it right.

If you look at the economic resilience fund, for instance, that's unique to Wales. I think there were 9,000 applications in the first few days. So, you can see, as you say—and thank you for your thanks to Welsh Government, and that's all of us—people are working incredibly hard to support the people of Wales. But things do take time, and it is important that we get it right.

I didn't say 100 farmers had applied, I said the original analysis was that there were probably around 100 dairy farmers who would be affected—who would fall within the criteria of the scheme. You ask if the money can be got out between six to 10 days. So, certainly, with the fisheries scheme—and I'm sort of comparing because, obviously, that one is up and running—I think that, with all the applications that we had, fishers received their funding within 10 days, so I would certainly hope to. I'm not big on red tape; I like simple, unbureaucratic ways of working, and I think, certainly, the fishers have really welcomed the speed with which they've received their money.

All lessons should be learned, good or bad, and, clearly, things are going to be very different. I think I heard Rebecca Evans saying at the end, life will not be the same again, and I don't think it will be the same again in many ways. In some ways, I think, we don't want life to be the same again. I hope all the things we've learned, and, again, the sort of behavioural change that we've seen—people embracing nature and the countryside in a way that they haven't before. I think it's really important that we lock in that behavioural change, and, certainly, I said in my statement that a green recovery is really important. So, yes, I think it's really important that we embed those lessons in our policy making.