Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:28 pm on 15 February 2023.
Thank you very much. I can assure the Member that, obviously, lessons were learned. Lessons always have to be learned when you have the reports that we did. You'll agree that there is a significant amount of monitoring that does go on into our rural development programme, and there were calls at the time for me to have an independent review, for instance, but I really didn't think that was necessary. What I think is really important is that we use all the RDP funding we can. I'm making every endeavour to ensure that every penny is spent before the RDP comes to an end.
I mentioned in an earlier answer about the significant funding we've put into the rural investment schemes, because I think what is really important is that we don't throw the baby away with the bath water. Whilst we haven't got the funding to be able to replace like for like, it is really important that we keep the benefits that we've gained over the years of the rural development programme going forward.