00:01A tourism tax for Wales has been making its way through the rounds of the Senate for some time
00:06and now looks set to come into effect by 2027 at the earliest.
00:09It will mean that local authorities will be given the powers to implement the levy,
00:13which ranges from 75p to £1.30, depending on lodgings like camping or hotel.
00:18But under 18s will officially be exempt from the extra charges.
00:22On the subject of holidays and tourism, Wales' national airport in Cardiff
00:26has been under Welsh Government ownership for over a decade,
00:29and Welsh Conservative leader Darren Miller believes it's been nothing but a massive waste of taxpayer money.
00:35Hundreds of millions of pounds have been pumped into the site,
00:38but passenger numbers are just a fraction of what we see at its closest rival in Bristol.
00:42Miller wants answers and wants the Welsh Government to cut at their losses.
00:46First Minister, the summer is here and airports around the UK are getting busier and busier.
00:51Over the weekend, over 300 flights set off from Bristol Airport.
00:56Yet here in Wales, just 57 flights departed from Cardiff,
01:02an airport which the Welsh Labour Government, of course, chose to nationalise back in 2013.
01:07So, do you accept that your Welsh Government is no better at running an airport than you are this country,
01:13that it's time to stop wasting taxpayers' money on this pet project,
01:18and that Cardiff Airport should be sold to somebody who knows how to run airports rather than leaving it in your hands?
01:25The subsidy, as you say, is not insignificant, but if you look at what we get as a nation,
01:31as a result of being able to host things like European Football Cups,
01:36that does in themselves bring in around £200 million.
01:40Without an airport, we wouldn't be able to host those kinds of things,
01:44and I think it is worth mentioning that because it is important.
01:48It's not just air travel that Darren Miller says the Welsh Government has been failing on.
01:52He says the rail transport has been neglected in recent years as well,
01:55and an announcement of less than half a billion pounds from the UK Labour Government for Wales
02:00is far less than Wales should be due, according to the Tory leader.
02:03But Alina Edmorgan says that money isn't to do with her,
02:06and Welsh Government investment has been far more substantial.
02:09You recently celebrated an announcement by the UK Labour Government
02:13of £445 million for rail infrastructure here in Wales over the next ten years,
02:18even though that sum is less than half that which was invested by the previous UK Conservative Government
02:26over the previous ten years.
02:28That Government, of course, invested £1.1 billion over a ten-year period
02:32with a promise of at least a billion more for the delivery of electrification in North Wales.
02:38We have invested £800 million in our rail services, and it has transformed the service.
02:45You look at the number of new trains that are on our services,
02:51everybody can see them all over the country.
02:53They are coming on, and it has led to an increase of a fifth in passenger numbers just in the past year.
02:59We have invested in the past year.
03:00We have invested in the past year.
03:01We have invested in the past year.
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