: I'd be grateful if you
could please respond to one of Sioned Williams's points in your
response to me, just in terms of clarifying what the position of
the Government is on the two-child cap—something that is, of
course, of huge concern to many of us because of that very cruel
policy. I will focus my contribution in terms of arts and
culture, and I would ask you, perhaps, to reflect on one of your
sentences where you said that you admired the can-do attitude and
resilience of the arts and cultural sector.
Well, yes, that has been the case but the 'can do' has turned
into 'can't any longer', and everyone has a breaking point, and
unfortunately, that has been reached. These are not threats
anymore: we have lost experts, key expertise; those skills are
gone. The damage is done in terms of our national institutions
from both the national library and Amgueddfa Cymru. I sponsored
at lunchtime an event by Prospects, where there were many of
those experts there; it was heartbreaking, Cabinet Secretary, and
I would urge you to perhaps have the conversation with Members of
both Prospects and PCS to hear about that heartbreaking—. They
can't do more. They're really concerned about the future of the
national collections, but also the accessibility of jobs within
our national institutions, because they say they will not be able
to provide opportunities for young people, that it will become
elitist, and that's not what we want to see. So, please, can I
ask you to reflect on that comment? Because there is a
seriousness to the situation of our national institutions, and
what I'd like to know is: how is the Government going to address
this in the short term, not just the long term?
(Cabinet Secretary for
Culture and Social Justice): I think we all already met with
both Prospect and PCS, and I think I'm having a separate meeting
with the Musicians'
Union, who I've also met with, but I think they've asked
for a further meeting. You will know that as part of the
co-operation agreement, and Siân Gwenllian, one of the
things they did was the funding that I think had been set aside
for this financial year to implement the culture strategy has
been used to save as many jobs as possible. I do recognise
obviously there have been voluntary redundancies, but I have been
reassured that they have tried to ensure that not all the skills
from one specific area have gone. Okay, it might be spread a bot
more thinly to try and protect some of those skills, but as I
said, I'm very happy to continue working with some of the
organisations requesting a very small amount of money. Now, if
that money should come forward, if we do have a Labour
Government, because I do think we would have some. If you look at
what they're pledging, and obviously the manifesto is yet to come
out, but we would get consequentials of funding.
So, what I try to say to everybody is, 'If you can just hang on
for a little bit longer and we can see if we can find some more
money.' But we are in a very difficult financial position and I
don't want to underplay that.
Sorry, I thought I had referred to two-child cap. What I had said
is I will continue to have those discussions, because I think we
all recognise what a powerful lever that could be.
To read all the exchanges, OPEN HERE
