The Welsh budget has been a contentious point for some time, as if it didn’t pass through the Senedd, additional funding would have been lost. None of the opposition parties decidedly agreed with the budget, but a last minute deal with the sole Lib Dem MS meant it scraped through in the 11th hour.
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00:00The Welsh budget has been looming for months. Since it was first pushed through by the Welsh
00:05Labour government back last year, questions have been hanging over the Senate about whether
00:09it would be voted through and ratified. It was only in the eleventh hour that it finally
00:14did pass, as the Welsh government struck a deal with the Welsh Liberal Democrats to ensure
00:19their budget would get the votes it needed to be implemented for the next financial year.
00:24It's not clear when the deal was first decided, but it was only made public on the day of
00:28the vote, so there would have been some anxiety from within the government if it didn't get
00:32the votes it needed. Then, much of the budget's money would have been lost.
00:38There is only one Liberal Democrat in the Senate in the shape of Mid and West Wales
00:42member Jane Dodds, and it took assurances from the Welsh government that they would
00:46cap young people's bus ticket prices and ban greyhound racing to get the deal through.
00:51If we don't pass this budget, we risk losing billions for the people of Wales. And I cannot,
00:58in good conscience, let that happen. Let me be clear, this is not the budget I
01:03would have chosen for Wales. It doesn't, for me, deliver the bold, ambitious future
01:08we deserve. But I am proud of the key victories of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, wins that
01:15will improve lives and spark real, meaningful change. We've secured additional funding
01:21for child care and social care, critical services for our most vulnerable. I'm proud
01:29that we prioritise these often overlooked fields.
01:32The vote followed some sharp discussion between members, but the Finance Minister, Mark Drakeford,
01:37believes it will deliver for the people of Wales.
01:39Now, Llywydd, as everyone here knows, we are a government without a majority. No party
01:46has ever had a majority since devolution began. So we have always had to craft a path to stability
01:56in Wales. When there is so much at stake and no single vote called each year in the Senedd
02:05has more at stake than at the final budget, we have always found a way to work together
02:13in this institution to find a way forward by identifying those areas where we can reach
02:19agreement.
02:21The Tories don't agree and fundamentally don't trust what the Welsh Government are doing.
02:26So believe any extra funding in the budget will be wasted at the hands of Labour.
02:30Wales is being let down. And these things have to change. And they're not going to change
02:35by what we've seen announced in today's budget. Our money is being frittered away. People
02:40are paying more for services—£1.20 per head, remember. That's what is received by
02:45the Welsh Government for every pound spent per head on a devolved service in England—£1.20.
02:52We're paying 20% more, but we're getting far less for our money in terms of value for money.