7. Plaid Cymru Debate: Bus emergency scheme

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:43 pm on 22 March 2023.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Natasha Asghar Natasha Asghar Conservative 5:43, 22 March 2023

I think it's clear that we all want to ensure that we have a good public transport network here in Wales. I don't doubt that the Deputy Minister will deny this, even though we know that he prefers to use his private car, to the tune of 12,000 miles over the last four years. But, sadly, we're facing a public transport crisis. From the messaging the Welsh Government has given us during the pandemic, which has scared the public away from using the vital service, to the lack of funding that it's getting to recover from COVID-19, what we see is a Welsh Government failing to incentivise local bus use.

Across the Chamber, Minister, it's clear that we are regularly seeing the Minister actually say something and mean something else. The front line is a totally different story from the picture that we often have painted here of the Welsh public transport network, including the collapsed roads review here, where often the Deputy Minister tells the Welsh public not to drive on roads and to rely on public services, and yet the Government has utterly failed to invest in buses or the public transport network right here in Wales. [Interruption.] Local bus use is now approximately 75 to 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, and these aren't scheduled to rise until around about 2030. And I'm not saying it—