The Horse-racing Industry

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:28 pm on 12 October 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:28, 12 October 2021

Well, Llywydd, I'll think carefully about what the Member has said this afternoon. The Welsh Government has provided over £1 million of funding to the industry from the spectator sport survival fund during the pandemic, and I've enjoyed many good days going horse racing myself, so I recognise what he says about its attractiveness to people, and particularly what he said about the standards of the industry here in Wales. He will understand that Government has to put its energies where we think the need is most urgent. I and my Ministers have been focused this week, Llywydd, on the steel industry and the urgent need to provide assistance to it, with its high-energy bills, to sustain that industry, with the thousands and thousands of people who rely upon it here in Wales. So, while I will, of course, think carefully about what the Member has said, in the end, Government has to decide where its energies and investments can most fruitfully be invested, and there are choices to be made in that.