3. Will the First Minister make a statement on the environmental impact of the rail derailment at Llangennech last year? OQ56369

I thank the Member for that question, Llywydd. The environmental impact of the derailment was amongst the most significant in Wales since the Sea Empress disaster of 25 years ago. Monitoring of the site and surrounding area, which includes four sites of special scientific interest and a special area of conservation, will continue for many years to come.

I'm grateful to the First Minister for his reply, and I know that he will want to join me in congratulating the public services on the way that they've co-operated around the clean-up, which, so far, has been very successful, given the scale of the problem, as the First Minister rightly identifies.

The First Minister will be aware that two groups of businesses were particularly badly affected, albeit not for very long, by the derailment. One of those was the very important cockle-gathering industry, the other, of course, was farmers who graze on those low-lying banks by the river. The First Minister will be aware that there has been a request going into Welsh Government to consider whether some interim financial support might be made available to the cockle gatherers and the grazers while responsibility for the derailment and long-term compensation becomes a possibility. I'm sure that the First Minister will be aware that many of these are very small businesses; they operate on quite low margins and in difficult circumstances. So, I wonder if the First Minister can tell me today whether the Welsh Government is able to look favourably on that request and when a decision might be made, fully accepting that this is a very unusual set of circumstances.

Llywydd, I thank Helen Mary Jones for those further questions. I definitely do join with her in congratulating those public services that did such a remarkable job at the time so that an environmental disaster on an even greater scale was averted. And I was hearing only this week from Lee Waters, the Member for Llanelli, of his visit to the site on Friday of last week, when he was able to see for himself the scale of the remedial work that has been carried out. And through him and through others, of course, I am aware of the impact on cockle gatherers particularly of the fact that they were unable to carry out their normal activities while the level of environmental contaminants in the estuary were being surveyed. It is right, as Helen Mary Jones was implying, that the polluter in the end must pay for the damage that has been done, but the rail accident investigation branch work is not coming rapidly to a conclusion.

In that context, I know that my colleague Lesley Griffiths is expecting to receive advice in the next 10 days or so as to whether or not it is possible to devise a scheme through the Welsh Government in which some interim assistance to those industries could be supplied. Now, I cannot anticipate the nature of the advice that the Minister will get, but I know that she has been very keen to obtain that advice from her officials in case it is possible, before the rail accident investigation is completed, to offer some assistance to those who have been most directly affected.