Questions now from the party spokespeople. The Conservative spokesperson first of all, Natasha Asghar. 

Thank you so much, Presiding Officer. Deputy Minister, yesterday we learnt that Wizz Air is ending all flights in and out of Welsh Government-owned Cardiff Airport, delivering yet another blow to its viability. Your Government described this move as, and I quote, 'surprising.' However, in August last year, your Cabinet colleague Julie James issued a written statement saying that your officials, and I quote, 

'will continue to maintain a close and open dialogue with the Airport Board'.

So, can you explain, Deputy Minister, in light of this close and open dialogue, did this announcement actually come as a surprise, or did you, your Cabinet colleague or your officials take your eye off the ball and not see this coming?

Thank you very much. Well, nobody saw it coming because it was a decision by the company, in the face of what they described as macroeconomic conditions, to withdraw from the airport; they've withdrawn from other airports too. The whole industry is facing significant pressures from inflation and the rising cost of energy. And also, aviation is a sector with quite a precarious business model, often operating on very small margins, so when we do have external forces like this shifting the terms of trade, that has a knock-on effect that cannot be anticipated, and certainly can't be easily mitigated by us. I don't accept that this throws into doubt our commitment to the airport, or indeed its future, and it's still on a pathway towards profitability. It's now, sadly, going to be a longer pathway, because this is a significant customer for the airport, but we are working closely with the airport management to look at alternative options.

Thank you, Deputy Minister. Once again, I always feel that, whenever I speak about Cardiff Airport, it's always someone else's fault, although I can't say that I'm not surprised by you, Deputy Minister, who clearly doesn't pay much attention to the issues that you don't like. If you don't like roads, you stop building them; if you don't like planes, you stop caring about an airport that you actually own. However, on this side of the Chamber, we do care, and have produced an action plan to support the airport so that it can deliver the economic benefits that Wales so desperately needs. To refresh your memory, one aspect of our plan called for an improved road, rail and public transport to the airport. In contrast, your Labour Government has done the opposite and actually scrapped the T9 bus service. So, Deputy Minister, why didn't you bring back the bus service following the pandemic, or did it suit your narrative to just simply let it go and hope that the public forgets about it?

Okay. Well, I completely reject that characterisation. The T9 bus service, as the Member should know, has had a significant drop in demand, as many bus services have right across the bus industry, right across the country, for every government. Passenger levels have not returned to their pre-pandemic levels, so we have to make a hard-headed judgment of where best to put the subsidy, and this is in the context of declining budgets. There is a bus service that goes from the airport into the centre of Cardiff; it takes a more circuitous route than the T9 bus service did, but it's still nonetheless perfectly functional, and we keep the future of that bus service under review.

Deputy Minister, without a doubt, Cardiff Airport has been a financial drain on the taxpayer. It was bought by the Welsh Government for £52 million in 2013, and valued at only £15 million in 2021. It has continuously seen a pre-tax loss for every period since its takeover, and has required millions of pounds of taxpayers' money in the form of grants and debt repayments to remain operational. Passenger numbers have fallen by 53 per cent since 2019. Cardiff Airport requires a clear, effective and comprehensive strategy for growth to enable it to thrive as an international hub—a strategy that requires vision and entrepreneurial savvy that your Government clearly lacks. And I'm very sorry to say this, but we do actually now need a plan in place, put in place by you, to actually get some confidence for us, as well as the public, in relation to Cardiff Airport. So, Deputy Minister, my final question is: do you agree that your ownership of Cardiff Airport has proved a woefully inept use of taxpayers' money, and that the best solution right now is to remove the dead hand of the Welsh Government and return Cardiff Airport to the private sector, where it rightfully belongs?

Well, it is a staggering level of ignorance, really, about the set of realities facing us. The private sector are not interested in an airport that isn't making money. Very few airports, across the world, make money, and I would challenge Natasha Asghar to give me some examples of airports that she thinks we should model, from around the world, that are profit making. [Interruption.]

Just carry on, Minister. The floor is yours.

Well, I'd rather not, Presiding Officer. It's very distracting to have these constant noises-off—to ask a question when she won't listen to the answer.

I feel as if I have to point out that you're a master of noises-off yourself, at various times, so disregard them. Carry on. [Laughter.]

Touché, Presiding Officer. [Laughter.]

The extra information Natasha Asghar was trying to provide was hard to hear. The fact is, the fundamental question we need to ask ourselves is do we think Wales should have an airport. If we think Wales should have an airport, there is market failure, so the private sector by itself is not going to provide that airport. Therefore, just as with Manchester, just as with other regional airports, there is a role for us as a Government to provide that airport, and that requires investment. Now, she extraordinarily pointed out to the decline of passengers sine 2019; well, I think we all have noticed what's happened since 2019. There had been a rising growth in passengers of the airport up until the pandemic. Clearly, since the pandemic, across the world, demand for air travel has fallen and has not recovered. There is not a business model in the world that would withstand that kind of external shock. The enterprise plan that she wrote—she was telling me from a sedentary position—I would dearly love to read to see what we could learn from her wisdom. This is a collective challenge for us all. If the Conservatives have solutions rather than simply calling for us to close the airport, I'm all ears.

Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Delyth Jewell.

Gweinidog, this week, it's been reported that global pollinator losses are causing 500,000 early deaths a year because of reduced supply of healthy food. Scientists say that about 1 per cent of all deaths can now be attributed to pollinator loss. As species champion for the shrill carder bee, one of our most endangered bumblebees, this causes me concern. It should alarm us all, because the health of our pollinators is directly linked to our own health and our planet's future. Harvard's Dr Samuel Myers has said that this link between biodiversity and human health is often missing in these discussions. So, could you set out, please, what the Government will do to protect and recreate nature-rich habitats, particularly those with an abundance of flowers? Schemes like the environmental land management schemes and the Welsh sustainable farming scheme need to be well funded, of course, to incentivise farmers. Can the Government do more, please, to tackle the use of pesticides? The EU, I know, has proposed a 50 per cent reduction in pesticide use by 2030. We should be doing at least that, I would hope. Will there be a Welsh plan to help the transition to sustainable alternatives and the use of more resilient crops, please?

Yes, Delyth, I completely agree with you. Obviously, we have to do something very dramatic to help our pollinators, and actually all of our wildlife species. It's why we did the deep dive to find out exactly what the scientific community could help us with in terms of the plans. It's why we've been speaking to local authorities across Wales about the wildlife corridors, No Mow May—I would say June and July as well—and the whole issue about planting native wildflower species along our transport routes to make the corridors necessary for the pollinators to be able to move around and to make sure that they don't have diminishing gene pools in particular sectors—all of the things that affect them. 

There's an enormous piece that we can do about people's gardens as well as just in wider agriculture. The sustainable farming scheme is all about making sure that we can farm in that sustainable way with a diminishing use of both herbicides and pesticides, both of which have a really dramatic effect on our ability to have that biodiversity that we all actually need to survive—literally need to survive. So, we have a range of measures in place. One of the things, though, that I know you'll be interested in is that I will want to see, as part of the 30x30 targets, what we can say about the diminishing use of pesticides and herbicides across the piece for ordinary things, if I can put it like that. 

We've got a re-education piece to do here as well. All of us will receive complaints from constituents about weeds on the pavement, for example, but weeds on the pavement are necessary, they're necessary for insects to hide. I think we've got to learn that neat is not good, that actually sometimes a little bit of scruff is exactly what nature needs. Trying to get people to understand that the neat pavements with no green of any description on them are not in fact neat, they're in fact dead, is a really big part of this piece. So, working with our local authorities to change the regime of weed clearance and so on and to change it into native wildflower species and that people recognise it is one of the things we really do need to do. This is all about the attitude and what we see out of our eyes when we look at nature.

Thank you. That point about urban habitats is really important; I agree completely. I'm going to talk about something else that is in the Deputy Minister's portfolio next, but thank you very much for that, Minister.

I want to turn my final question to talk about women's safety on trains. A recent survey by Railwatch has shown that 60 per cent of women had experienced a situation where they were made to feel uncomfortable when travelling on a train in the UK because of their gender or their physical appearance. Some 35 per cent had deliberately changed the way that they looked on a train, like covering up or putting on a coat or something like that. LGBTQ women were 10 per cent to 20 per cent more likely to have these experiences. It's just the most dreadful situation. I've raised before how women can feel unsafe when traveling to and from—I don't mind who answers—trains as well. Something needs to change. The good news is that 9 out of 10 women in this survey said that they could feel safer if changes were made. If they saw changes, 60 per cent would increase how often they travel by rail. So, could you, please, tell me, Minister, what could be done to address these problems? And because it affects half the population, or it could potentially affect half the population, could a specific statement, please, be brought to the Senedd about this? Thank you.  

Delyth, that's something very close to my heart, and I will say I'm one of them. I've done that myself; I've put my coat around my hair, put a hat on, and tried to make myself as inconspicuous as possible, because I've been travelling alone at night on public transport and it hasn't felt safe. There are several things to say about that. First of all, I hosted a Women in Transport event just before Christmas in the Senedd, where we trying to highlight the role of women in transport—working in the transport sector, but also actually users of transport—about what changes we want to see. I would encourage everyone here to join up to the hub there, and start to try and influence it. The second thing is, of course, to make sure that with our unions we have the right level of staffing on our stations and so on, or the right level of lighting, or the right level of emergency provision. And the third thing is to make sure that our public transport is better populated, because, frankly, if you're on a well-used service, then you don't feel like that; it tends to be when you're isolated, alone in something that doesn't feel like there's anyone else around you.

I think there are a range of things that we can do that we're already doing with Transport for Wales around the way that our stations work, the way that our bus service works, the way that we have staffing on the stations, but I would encourage you very much to get involved in the Women in Transport hub. It is a really useful resource, where we can start to put that gender lens on many of the services we use. I really think it's a very important point about how different sectors of society experience different things. What we really want is a public service that welcomes everyone, and makes everyone feel safe. We could have a similar conversation about people with disabilities or other things as well. So, there is a plan in place, but I particularly want to recommend to you the Women in Transport hub, which I was very pleased to be launching in the Senedd just before Christmas.