Rhodri's plan for public services misses its 'Connection'

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 19th Oct 2004

Rhodri Morgan's eagerly awaited announcement on the future of public services in Wales has turned out to be nothing more than "a vacuous collection of words on shiny paper", says Mike German.

The statement to the Assembly - which launched a document entitled Making the Connection: Delivering Better Services for Wales - has been eagerly awaited since the surprise announcement of the abolition of the three largest Quangos back in July.

Mike German, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats in the Assembly, said: "This announcement is nothing more than a vacuous collection of words on shiny paper. There is nothing in the statement. No wonder the Labour group looked bored and glum while he made it. They were hoping for a serious statement of intent, backed up by a plan for action.

"All they got was more of Rhodri's famous back-of-the-envelope thinking - this time in the form of a lengthy creative writing exercise. He has plucked a figure of £600m worth of savings out of the air with no recognisable way of measuring it. And he has found a budget line to invest £32m, just eight days after his government's draft budget made no mention of such a sum."

During the Assembly's plenary session, Mr German stressed the need for accessible high quality public services, and said these were only possible with proper funding and giving the Assembly real powers.

"This whole debate on public services is not about choice - it's about access to high quality public services," he said. "You can only have meaningful choice when everyone has access to good quality services. How many people can't get an appointment with an NHS dentist? How many have seen their local post office close under a Labour government? Or their local school? How many thousands are waiting for operations?

"It would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall when Rhodri Morgan spoke to Tony Blair about this. Assuming he has spoken to the Prime Minister about this? When Mr Blair comes to Wales in April or May next year for the general election I wonder whether he will he be selling his vision for public services or Rhodri's? What about Gordon Brown? Or Alan Milburn?"

"Because to provide the quality public services that the people of this country want you need two things - power and money. You need the powers to make services accessible; to provide things like free personal care, which at present we are powerless to do.

"The First Minister should be standing up for those powers, as advocated by the Richard Commission. He also needs to take a stand against the unjust funding formula which squeezes our ability to spend the money needed to provide high quality, accessible public services. Without reform of the Barnett Formula it will be very difficult to achieve real change in public services in Wales."