Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:23 pm on 7 March 2017.
I’m not giving way. He can listen for a moment. He’ll be pleased to know that my constituents have already heard that message loud and clear from his party. As far as they are concerned, this Welsh Government spends too much on them, and money should be taken away from them to be spent elsewhere. But more extraordinarily still, Llywydd—far more extraordinarily still—will be the fact that he intends to cast his vote this afternoon to deny the public who live in his constituency—and, indeed, the constituencies of almost every other Plaid Cymru Member I can see—the help that this supplementary budget would give them: the money that this budget is providing for Hywel Dda Local Health Board; the money that this budget will provide to Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board; the money that makes it possible for services to go on being provided—[Interruption.] I’ve already told him I’m not giving way. So, the money that this supplementary budget will provide to people who live in his constituency—[Interruption.]—and he will vote today to deny them that help. It was an extraordinarily ill-judged contribution. [Interruption.] I do hope that other Members will not feel obliged to follow him in that way. It is through our careful financial management that we have been able to earmark reserves. We will carry those forward where we can to the coming financial year. We’ve deployed them in this financial year to support our public services—they will support key priorities, they will provide some additional contingency. Passing this supplementary budget is necessary to make sure that the things that people across Wales rely on every day go on being able to—