Janet Finch-Saunders MS: First Minister, 24,000 people work in the manufacturing industry in food and drink, with around 230,000 employed in the wider supply chain. There are around 3,700 different Welsh food and drink producers on retail, and a vital stage is the hospitality sector. Will you consider reopening the hospitality sector indoors from 13 July, but more importantly, advise them of this now? If not, what do you say to the Welsh Independent Restaurant Collective, whose survey found that at least 30,000 job losses are expected in the sector and that nearly half of these have happened already? Could you explain to me how it is seen to be safe for children to be in classrooms eating their lunch but yet unsafe for adults to sit inside a restaurant? Diolch.
First Minister: Well, Llywydd, I think it's very easy to explain the difference: as far as I know, alcohol isn't being served in schools in Wales, whereas it would be in the context that the Member refers to. The idea that these things are somehow comparable is clearly nonsensical as soon as you begin to consider it. No, I won't be reopening indoor hospitality from 13 July, but I'm very glad indeed that we've been able to work with the sector and that outdoor hospitality will be reopening in Wales from that date. What we will then do is work with the sector to see that they make a success of that reopening, that they deliver on the many compensating measures that they have, I think, in a very committed and imaginative way, come forward with—measures to mitigate the impact of coronavirus—and provided we can see that that is being done successfully, then we will be able to move to reopening indoor hospitality.
What I think the Member never seems to grasp is that unless you're prepared to do this in a careful way, then people won't come back to use those facilities; people won't have the confidence to come back to restaurants and cafes and public houses in Wales unless they know that we have worked together to make those places safe. The weeks ahead in which the sector will deliver, I feel confident, on the promises it has made will be an investment in making sure that when we are able to move to indoor hospitality, people in Wales will have the confidence to return to it and that will have stood that sector and those businesses in very good stead.
