Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:00 pm on 15 December 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:00, 15 December 2020

I will want to see the detail of what Plaid Cymru is proposing. In particular, Llywydd, I will want to see where the money is to be taken from in order to pay for such a commitment, because when you are in Government that is the choice you face—that money spent on one purpose cannot be spent on something else. We spend our budget every year right up to the maximum, and this year and next year we will be drawing additional money out of reserves in order to be able to continue to defend our public services here in Wales. So, I will look at the detail of what the Member is proposing, not simply the headline that he's offered us this afternoon, but how much this will cost and where he thinks the money will come from in order to pay for it. And if I can see the detail of that, I'll be happy to consider it. 

Let me agree with what Adam Price said, though, in opening, because, of course, a meal in school is far more than just food. The campaign for free school meals was launched here in Cardiff in 1906 in City Hall here in Cardiff, where the Fabian Society published a pamphlet that has one of my favourite titles of all political pamphlets, because the title of the pamphlet was, 'And they shall have flowers on the table'. It is a beautiful title and what it tells you is that the case for free school meals was not simply feeding children, but it was valuing children. It was telling children who came to school that they were people that their society invested in and wanted to do the best by—'They shall have flowers on the table'. And in the sense of the Finnish experiment and the things that Adam Price said, I absolutely share the view that providing a meal for a child in school is more than just putting food in their stomachs; it is about the value that we place on that child, and the clear signal that we give to them about an investment that society makes in their future.