Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:47 pm on 9 February 2022.
Thank you, and thank you, Mabon, for raising this important subject. It's something I've raised continually ever since I've been a politician. And, as chair of the cross-party group on sport, I want to reassure you that there's complete consensus across this Chamber that facilities are an absolute key priority for all of us. They need to be changed. They are in disrepair, they are completely out of date or they're non-existent, particularly in rural areas. It's an absolute must that we look into it.
I was secretary of a junior football club, and literally everything closes down in the winter, because the pitches are so bad. There are no 3G facilities within a 20-mile radius, for example. It's not good enough for our young people, or any age, really, to have that lack of facilities. If we are serious about creating future stars, then we need to be serious about improving our facilities. I swam for Wales in Pontypool Dolphins, as it happens. So, seven days a week I was swimming, and my parents had to take me from Usk to Pontypool and back seven days a week. That's a massive commitment, and I was lucky that they were able to do that, otherwise I would never have had the opportunities that I had. So, travel is something that we absolutely need to look into in terms of getting people to these things if we can't place those facilities on doorsteps. I just want to say thank you for bringing—. I think it's just a perfect subject to talk about, because practise, practise, practise does make perfect, and it will create our future stars. And without anything to practise on, we won't create them. So, thank you for bringing this debate.