Our sums add up, says Plaid leader over free childcare promise
BBCThe leader of Plaid Cymru said he is "confident that the sums add up", when challenged about how his party would fund a manifesto pledge to expand free childcare.
Rhun ap Iorwerth said people should judge his party on what it does, not how much it spends, if it forms the next Welsh government.
Plaid would "reprioritise" the government's budget and "spend money differently", he said in a BBC Radio Wales interview, with two weeks to go to the Senedd election.
Labour said Plaid "needs to be honest with voters" and claimed its childcare policy was "unaffordable".
Parties have repeatedly clashed in the campaign for the election, on 7 May, over their plans to spend on public services and cut taxes.
None of them have published a detailed set of costings during the campaign.
Plaid says it will offer 20 hours of free care a week for children aged nine months to four years old.
It would also honour an existing commitment to provide three and four year olds with 30 hours of care a week if their parents are in work, education or training.
On BBC Radio Wales Breakfast on Thursday ap Iorwerth said: "This is all based on what [amount of money] we have in the pot already.
"We have made careful decisions and choices in order for us to be in a position where we are confident we can deliver that within the funding that we have."
He added: "We are asking people to scrutinise us not on how much we spend, but on what we achieve.
"This will be a government, if we have the honour of forming it, that will be focused on outcomes – what difference we make to people's lives – and in that respect it doesn't matter how much we spend, it's what we do with that money."
When put to him that the sums still needed to add up, ap Iorwerth replied: "Absolutely. And we're confident that the sums do add up."
Persistent levels of child poverty, despite the Welsh government claiming to have spent billions on reducing it, showed "they are celebrating how much they spend without celebrating how much they are doing".
A spokesperson for Labour, which currently leads the Welsh government, said: "Plaid need to be honest with voters on how they will pay for their promises.
"Again Rhun ap Iorwerth can't say what he'd cut to fund their unaffordable childcare pledge.
"He says they'll spend money dedicated to tackling child poverty 'differently,' but can't say what vital services he'd scale back."
In the interview, ap Iorwerth also repeated his claim that Israel was committing genocide when he was asked about a Plaid candidate who called the country a "terrorist state".
Vivek Thuppil, standing for Plaid in the same Bangor Conwy Mon constituency as the party leader, made the comments on social media.
"I believe Israel has been responsible for genocide in Gaza," ap Iorwerth said.
"I will use that word and I believe the people of Gaza have been terrorised over the last two and a half years."
Asked if Thuppil's comments were acceptable, he said: "I will use very very strong terms to condemn the actions of Israel in Gaza. In the same way as I condemned the action of terrorists who attacked innocent Israelis in October 2023."
