Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy – in the Senedd at 1:49 pm on 13 July 2022.
Well, can I thank Tom for those points, which are hugely important, and can I also add our best wishes to team Wales in Birmingham next month—or this month, actually; at the end of this month? I've had the huge pleasure of being involved in the kit distribution to our athletes. I've actually got my commonwealth badge, which is made of Clogau gold, would you believe. The kit distribution, the—what do they call it—the baton relay and so on—. So, we went to Holyhead to receive the baton relay. I don't think I saw you there, Rhun, did I? But, we saw the baton relay coming in from Ireland through to Holyhead, and then I had the pleasure of seeing the baton relay coming through my own constituency, starting in Aberfan, as well. So, good luck to team Wales, and obviously good luck to the team in Qatar in November—the world cup team in Qatar.
The issue of facilities is one that's come up time and time again, and I'm very aware of the views of the chief executive of the FAW. We are in regular contact with the FAW about how we can capitalise on the legacy that Wales being in the world cup is going to deliver for us. What I would say is our starting point is that we have put in the highest amount of capital investment in facilities that we have ever put through Sport Wales. So, over the next three years, we're seeing £24 million being invested in sports facilities across Wales.
But I think we also need to remember that sports facilitates are not just about the money that goes in through Sport Wales. We have to think about the amount of money that goes into multi-centre sporting facilities in our schools, for instance. So, if we look at the amount of investment that we've had in the twenty-first century schools programme and the current incarnation of that—again, in my own constituency, we have state-of-the-art sports facilities in many of those schools, and those all have to be added in to what we are delivering in terms of community sporting facilities.
I do agree with the chief executive of the FAW that we still have a long way to go in terms of all of those facilities, and I know that the FAW is working alongside other national governing bodies to develop and deliver sporting facilities that can be multi-use as well. So, if we are investing in new 3G pitches, for example, we shouldn't just be investing in football pitches, These should be multi-surface pitches that can accommodate rugby, hockey and other sports, and I know that the FAW are working with national governing bodies on that.
In terms of the £4 million invested by the FAW, or going to be invested by the FAW, that of course is to be welcomed, and that is money that is available to them because of the qualification, and it is the amount that they are able to deliver through the prize money that they have from qualifying for the world cup. We will continue to work with them and with other national governing bodies to see how we can develop those grass-roots facilities and how we can ensure that that legacy of our qualification for the world cup is followed through and delivers the community facilities that we so badly need.