Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:18 pm on 14 February 2023.
But, of course, in the real world, it is the Welsh Government that is taking services further away from people. It was the Welsh Government, of course, that funded a new hospital without any public transport links at all for my constituents, and I've come back here for the last six, seven years, and been assured by every Minister who's held that portfolio that public transport links would be provided, and they haven't been. They haven't been today. And so, what I want to see from the Welsh Government is more joined-up thinking—that, if we're going to take services away from people in terms of distance, then what we have to be able to do is to provide a public transport option that is available for people to reach those services, and that hasn't happened.
It's the easiest thing in the world to make a pious speech or to say 'no'. What is more difficult is designing the public transport structures and systems that give people a real choice, and the most striking part of your statement for me, Deputy Minister, was when you said that most successful economies have modern, successful public transport systems. Now, you know, and I know, that the deregulation of the buses, which didn't happen in London, of course, by Thatcher's Government has wiped out bus services across Wales—rural and urban—and what we need to do is to reinstate those. So, what we need to sit alongside this statement is another statement on the alternatives available to people, to some of the most poor and vulnerable people in the country, because promising more committees and more commissions year, after year, after year is not going to cut the mustard any more. People want to see real plans for real public transport options, and when that is done, you won't need to make speeches like this; you won't need to have any more statements—