Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:30 pm on 28 September 2021.
Llywydd, I thank Huw Irranca-Davies. I tried to say in my opening statement that I wanted to be optimistic about the IGR, because a huge amount of work has gone into it, by officials particularly. And some of the biggest breakthroughs in the IGR have been in areas for which the Welsh Government, and our officials, have been responsible. So, the fact that it includes an independent element in dispute resolution is a complete breakthrough—we've never had that at all. The UK Government has been the judge, the jury, the sentencer, the Court of Appeal all by itself, and now that won't be the case. When we tried, with the Scottish Government, Llywydd—you may remember—to raise a dispute over the £1 billion that went to Northern Ireland, without any comparable sums coming to Wales, Scotland, or indeed to England, the UK Government simply told us that, in their view, there was not a dispute. So, we had written, saying, declaring a dispute, and they wrote back and said, 'In our view, there isn't a dispute, and so we won't be taking it any further.' Well, that won't be possible if the IGR is concluded. Why do I hesitate? Because we were—. I've been told, for several months now, that we are just on the brink of signing it. We were due to sign it before the summer recess; it didn't happen. We were due to sign it before we came back; it didn't happen. We were due to sign it just before the reshuffle, and it didn't happen. So, I want to be optimistic, because I think that a huge amount of work has been done, and it gives us a new platform and a new chance to reset those relationships, but until it's in the bag, I won't be putting any flags out of any description.