, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
And what Alun was saying with regard to language and language planning, to do more with each other in that area. With the basic income, they have a pilot, we have a pilot. They spend €25 million, more or less what we're spending on the pilot that we have…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
We face a common challenge in designing a consenting regime that enables developments in the Celtic sea while respecting the environmental standards to which we are committed. Those people are in short supply, the skills are rare. They think that in some ways…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
Thank you very much. The first step is to have a full report with the person who has been in Ireland and to draw lessons out of the experiences that he has had, nd from that platform, then, to do more. There are many more possibilities, I think, to share…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
Diolch yn fawr. I'll try and be brief because there's a lot to cover there. In terms of immediate priorities under the action plan, here are three, I think, that will have a dominating impact over the coming months. There is Greenlink, the interconnector…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
Of course. Well, there isn't a great deal more to say than I have already said. We were discussing this with Ministers in Ireland back in October. There is now an agreement in principle to create some sort of fund where we put money in and they put money in…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
Very happy to share that.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
There are some facts and figures—thinking back to Mr Giffard's original question—there are some facts and figures that we can provide the committee with on volumes of trades, sectors in which the trade is growing and so on.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
Well, the way in which Cork is very much part of the discussions we have is around the Celtic sea and floating offshore wind. So, a big part of the free-port status for Port Talbot and Pembrokeshire ports is around opportunities in the Celtic sea. I think the…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
In Cardigan, in Ceredigion, we will be fair, again, and that's money beyond what we talked about, and there are individual opportunities that arise, individual institutions, universities, bid into other pots of money, not just Horizon, with partners in…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
Yes, we are.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
I believe it is, so I wasn't completely—
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
Sorry, Cardigan.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
Cardigan.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
So, you know the fantastic work that he is involved in. The Welsh Government and the Irish Government are now agreed on funding for Other Voices in Ceredigion again—
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
Well, there are funds that both Welsh institutions and Irish institutions draw on beyond what I've talked about. I think—did I see that you met with or heard from Philip King?
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
Well, of course, we've already heard about this issue from individuals in the university sector with regard to their concerns, because people in the sector don't have the funding now to continue with their work, unless they have the funding available via…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
Well, I've made that case many times to the UK Government. Many countries that are not in the European Union are able to participate in the four areas that I was advocating for, including inter-territorial co-operation programmes. We would like to do that…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
Just one point, then, which is that the biggest loss of money, of course, is in the inter-territorial co-operation programme. We had €100 million in the last multi-annual financial framework; all of that is gone. We are providing a very modest amount of…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
Of course. Thank you. Members here will know the position of the Welsh Government always was that our future was better secured through membership of the European Union, and nothing that has happened since suggests to me that we got that wrong. But not only…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
Well, my experience of being in Ireland and in other contacts with Irish Ministers and parliamentarians is exactly that—there is a very strongly positive disposition and investment in the relationship. In the end, the shared statement and the action plan is…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
The glue is the First Minister's office—and Des. He's too modest to say it, but if anybody represents the continuity in our relationship with Ireland, over the whole of devolution, Des has been a continuous presence in it. And that is a very important part of…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
Well, thanks for that, of course.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
Well, I think it's a mixture of both. I don't think we are without tangible metrics—you can count the number of trade missions, you can count the number of encounters between Welsh Ministers and Ministers in the Republic and you can count economic indicators…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
Well, that is my responsibility, because I have oversight of our relationship with Ireland and oversight of the shared statement. I don't see it as my job to constrain bilateral activity; I am very glad to see a whole range of Ministers in the Welsh…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Wales-Ireland relations: evidence session with the First Minister
Thank you. Well, I think, in a way, devolution itself reset the relationship between Wales and Ireland. You saw in the early part of devolution the establishment of a consulate here in Wales. By 2012, we had established our presence in Dublin, in the embassy…
