Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:49 pm on 15 September 2021.
In the hope, of course, that there will be a gear change in terms of how quickly these issues are solved, because, as you say, there are problems and there are pressures that we need to deal with, as well as the structural questions that are more long term.
You referred earlier on to some of the groups and the sectors that will be impacted negatively by the decision of the Westminster Government to increase national insurance contributions, and perhaps I'd like to hear some of your ideas now about how you as a Government will try to rectify those negative impacts on those who will be affected disproportionately. And, of course, as is done in Scotland, it's time for us to build the case for devolving powers over national insurance to this Senedd, rather than leaving it up to Westminster to introduce the changes in a way that will have a negative impact on people in Wales. Now, the First Minister agreed with Adam Price here in this Chamber yesterday that devolving national insurance would provide a useful tool for the Welsh Government. And if I remember rightly, he said that he would have argued that that would have been more useful than the devolution of income tax. Can I ask what your opinion is, as Minister for finance, about the need to be robust on devolving national insurance, and also what case are you making to promote that with the Westminster Government?