Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:11 pm on 5 October 2022.
Diolch, Llywydd. Can I thank all Members and the Minister for their contribution to today's debate? Llyr Gruffydd told me in the tea room earlier that this debate would be a major event in and of itself, and I think he was proven quite correct. [Laughter.]
To summarise some of the contributions, Paul Davies in his opening remarks referred to the magnificent achievement of team Cymru, and I want to repeat my well wishes to them ahead of their world cup campaign in Qatar. And on the world cup, I have to say I'm still disappointed that grass-roots-level campaigns have not been able to get involved with the world cup partner support fund when it was announced last week. I'd hoped that we would have had the ability to involve people all across Wales. It's also disappointing to hear that official fan zones are not taking place to commemorate the event, and I would urge the Government to work with councils across Wales to make sure that that does happen.
Paul also went on to mention the major events strategy and how we can maximise the economic benefit from these events. As has been mentioned, there are many major cultural events that take place each year, and we can capitalise on those events that take place—not just in Cardiff, but in Swansea, in north Wales, in mid Wales, in west Wales as well. I'd like to echo his call that the strategy should be rethought with an additional focus on how we can look at more aspiration and innovation in it. And through that aspiration and innovation, my colleague Natasha Asghar mentioned the recent events that unfortunately brought Cardiff to a standstill during the Ed Sheeran and the Stereophonics concerts, which caused absolute havoc to our transport networks, with some people, as she illustrated, stuck for hours, only to end up missing their concert, or arriving very late home.
There needs to be a joined-up approach throughout all of the major events strategies to maximise revenue for the whole city, the whole town, or the whole area to benefit from that major event when it comes to Wales. We need to make sure that we tap into people's interests when they're travelling to our cities and our towns and sell other parts of our country whilst they are here. That could not have been more relevant than when the recent WWE Clash at the Castle event took place in Cardiff last month. Here we had an opportunity to galvanise people's interest in our cultural wonders and not just concentrate them in Cardiff.
Also, my colleague Paul Davies mentioned the fact that the Welsh Government seemed to be hiding behind the figures that brought the event here in the first place. I heard the Minister in his response talking about maximising the return on the events we support, which sounds like a noble ambition, but you haven't told us how much you spent on it, Minister, in the first place. How would we know that you've maximised the return on such an event? Taxpayers' money being used to bring such a global brand to Wales is something to be welcomed, but it's really concerning to see the obfuscation from the Welsh Government to release those figures, so we as Members of the Senedd can scrutinise that investment and ensure taxpayers were getting value for money.
It's also been the case in James Evans's constituency with the Gilestone Farm scandal, where Ministers have again refused to be honest with the Welsh people about what has happened. [Interruption.] I'm happy to give way to the Deputy Minister, if he'd like to come in. No? No, I didn't think so. There is a continued clear disregard for the Welsh public and scrutiny of Government decision making leaves us to wonder what really goes on in bringing these major events to Wales when we should be working together to make them a success in the first place. Sam Rowlands reeled off a wonderful list of all the events that he had brought to his area when he led Conwy council—