Speech at Senedd 23 June RE Austerity and social care

Can I welcome the Minister’s statement?

Can I, again, remind people it was the international banking crisis that got us into the mess the country ended up in?

It had nothing to do with the last Labour Government. Austerity is not working. It is stifling growth in the economy.

This, in turn, is reducing the income tax take of the Government and leading to further cuts—an unvirtuous circle. The more people cut, the bigger the problem they have, as they’ve discovered in Greece, though I’m sure that the Conservatives want to blame the Labour Government in London for the problem in Greece.

Whilst the Government has done everything possible to maximise the resources available to support their priorities, this has been done against a background of substantial cuts from Westminster. While areas such as local government and further education are suffering cuts in Wales, they are not at the level of their equivalent bodies in England.

I again note that Wales spends 5 per cent more per head on health and social care compared to England. Does the Minister agree that we want to reduce health demand and reduce waiting times, and to get people out of hospital as quickly as possible, and that spending on social care is the way forward, to make sure that people are kept in their home by social care expenditure, and while they’re in hospital are able to go home and be looked after in their homes rather than staying in hospital for an extended period?

So, does the Minister really believe that the Government’s view of spending money on social care is the right way as opposed to the Conservatives’ view of cutting that along with everything else?