Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:54 pm on 23 February 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:54, 23 February 2021

The only priority the leader of Plaid Cymru has is to make fine-sounding speeches in which he promises anybody that he will be able to solve their problems. So, this is a priority for him—well, that's good to know. Last week, it was a priority for him to spend money on free school meals. The week before that, it was a priority for him to provide childcare for all families with a child above the age of one. The week before that it was to spend £6 billion on investment, which he hasn't got. Priorities, Llywydd, mean not just simply saying things that he thinks people will want to hear. It means having to make decisions that match the harsh realities of budgets with the ambitions that we have. This Government had a real ambition to improve conditions in the social care workforce. It's why we decided that it would be a registered profession. We have a real ambition to make sure that people are properly paid in it, and we will find the money to match our priorities. Simply adding, week after week, to totally uncosted wish lists, which is all he ever has to offer me, really is a remarkable performance of voodoo economics that he conjures up here on a weekly basis, and he's done it again today.