Eluned Morgan’s forty-fifth session as first minister comes to a close.

Image source, Senedd Cymru

Former first minister Vaughan Gething seeks a statement on the Wales Investment Summit held yesterday, which he describes as "highly successful".

Eluned Morgan says the summit "showed Wales at its very best" to global investors who gathered in Newport, such as chip-maker Nvidia and telecoms giant Vodafone.

Conservative Samuel Kurtz says the Labour Welsh government has already been given ample time to attract investors and grow the economy.

He says, "next May, you and your government won't be judged on one investment summit; you'll be judged on 26 years of failure. So, why has it taken this government two decades to finally show any real concern and give a damn about the Welsh economy?"

Eluned Morgan replies, "I'll tell you why: because of years of austerity imposed by your government. That made a huge difference. So, what we did was to focus attention on the public sector, to make sure we supported people when they were really struggling. Now we don't have austerity anymore, we can shift our focus".

Image source, PA Media

Conservative Gareth Davies expresses concerns about the future of Cefndy Healthcare in Rhyl after more than four decades in business.

The closure of the council-owned company employing people with disabilities has been paused.

He says, "the proposed closure of Cefndy Healthcare in Rhyl is deeply troubling, not just because it marks the potential end of a long-standing local enterprise, but because of what it means for people who rely on it. Since 1976, Cefndy has provided meaningful and secure employment for disabled workers, giving around 30 people a wage, dignity and independence. Denbighshire County Council has made the decision to withdraw funding, albeit paused for six months, leaving the staff in limbo."

The first minister replies, "55 social enterprises have already been supported in Denbighshire. Now, Cefndy is clearly a matter for the Denbighshire council, but Welsh Labour will always defend fair and secure work for disabled people. So, we welcome the council's decision to pause the closure, rather than push ahead with an option that could have triggered a £350,000 Department for Work and Pensions clawback. It is clear, though, in the independent assessment, that Cefndy isn't financially sustainable without major investment. That gives them an opportunity to look at co-op models of employee ownership."

Image source, Senedd Cymru

Image source, Senedd Cymru

Plaid Cymru MS Heledd Fychan expresses concerns about "the decrease in the number of learners in Wales gaining qualifications in international languages in schools and colleges".

Eluned Morgan - who has a degree in European Studies from the University of Hull - says "although there are challenges with A-levels, the number of students taking GCSEs in international languages have risen in Wales over the past two years. We have invested £1.6 million in addition into international languages, and have extended our Global Futures programme, which continues to assist schools to teach languages."

Heledd Fychan says "despite that investment and strategy there are still significant challenges, with two in every five secondary schools in Wales reporting that they don't offer any post-16 provision at all." She warns that if current trends continue, some languages – particularly German – will disappear from the curriculum.

The British Council Wales published the Language Trends Wales 2025 report last month.

Entries for French increased from 2,126 in 2024 to 2,269 (up 6.7%) in 2025, while Spanish, which took a dip between 2023 and 2024, rose from 1,359 to 1,591 (up 17%).

German continues its downward trend, dropping to 432 entries (down 7%).

At A-level, entries for French have fallen 30 per cent from 242 in 2024 to 169 in 2025, while German has dropped nearly one-third (32%) from 62 to 42.

Spanish is the only language showing stability at A-level.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Senedd Cymru

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth says the UK Labour government's Budget "failed to deliver for Wales, chaotic in its choreography, deeply disappointing in detail. It addressed none of the structural issues that see our nation missing out on billions of pounds, no progress on devolving the Crown Estate, no HS2 consequentials, no mention of reforming the Barnett formula which has left us chronically underfunded for decades."

He asks, "can the first minister confirm whether she supports the Chancellor's decision to raise taxes on working people, dragging thousands of employees into higher bands over coming years? And what does she think will be the consequences of this for our democracy?"

Eluned Morgan says "if Rachel Reeves had rode over the Severn Bridge on a golden horse and handed out £1 million to every person in this country, I still think you would have said that Wales would be short-changed. This was a budget that took Wales seriously... Even in his own constituency [Ynys Môn], where £2.5 billion has been invested directly into your constituency, and massive amounts of money going into support, also thousands of jobs in terms of AI. Let's be clear: this was transformational in particular for your constituency, and you can't even bring yourself to say thank you".

Rhun ap Iorwerth adds, with the Welsh government needing to pass its own budget in a Senedd vote in January, "the first minister knows that Plaid Cymru would never allow our councils to face the doomsday scenario of tens of thousands of job losses and skyrocketing council tax. Neither would we allow the NHS to have a historically low funding increase. She knows, or she should, that we've been trying to get a better understanding of the budgetary picture, because I want to try to help councils and council tax payers and the NHS out of the predicament she has put them in. Well, that's how I approach the crisis Labour is in with its budget."

Last October the Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford released a draft £27bn budget which saw each department's funds rise by around 2%.

But the figure is expected to change, because the budget left hundreds of millions unallocated and available for discussions with opposition parties on how they might want to spend it.

At the last budget Labour ministers were able to rely on the single vote of Jane Dodds, the Welsh Liberal Democrat leader, to get their spending plans through the Senedd vote.

But Plaid's victory in the Caerphilly by-election has meant that Labour needs two extra votes to get next January's budget through the Senedd.

Image source, Senedd Cymru

Darren Millar, leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd, says the Labour UK government has broken promises on taxation and the Chancellor Rachel Reeves misled the public about the nation's finances ahead of last week's Budget and should resign.

He says, "in the very first Labour budget after that general election, those promises were broken because the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, went on to increase employers' national insurance and change inheritance tax rules for those very hard-working people such as farmers and small business owners. And she told the nation at that time that it was a one-off, that she would not need to come back to hike taxes again, and yet last week we had groundhog day, as she came back for billions more in her second Labour budget to fund yet more out-of-control spending on welfare. And what is worse is that Rachel Reeves did so after misleading the public about the state of public finances. Do you agree with me, first minister, that Labour cannot be trusted on tax, that the Chancellor’s actions clearly amount to a breach of the ministerial code, and that she should resign?"

Eluned Morgan says the Budget was the "biggest set of pro-Wales decisions seen by a UK government in years. I think there is a lot to celebrate in the Chancellor's budget when it comes to Wales."

She highlights the decision to scrap the two-child benefit cap which she says will lift 70,000 children out of poverty in Wales.

She adds, "we were concerned there may be an increase in the basic rate of income tax that would affect workers in Wales. She didn't do that. We saw instead a pension uplift that is going to support many thousands of the 700,000 pensioners in Wales, £500 better off. That's what this budget does for Wales. It also supports people who are struggling with the cost-of-living issues, and they are going to get support now with their energy bills. So, there's a huge amount in this, and that's before we started talking about the 160,000 people in Wales who will gain as a result of the national living wage uplift and the minimum wage uplift. This is something we should celebrate, and that's before we start talking about the individual projects that were specific to Wales."

The Budget included £26bn of tax rises, with £8bn raised by extending the freeze on income tax and National Insurance thresholds for a further three years, but no increase in the rates of income tax.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Senedd Cymru

Plaid Cymru MS Mabon ap Gwynfor raises concerns about delayed discharges from hospitals.

Eluned Morgan replies, "our strategy is to unblock the system so people can leave hospital safely and on time. We’ve set ambitious national targets, and we’re backing them with real reform: a service that operates seven days a week, a 'discharge and recover, then assess' model across Wales, so that people can return home or into community care sooner. We are already seeing the impact. Delays are down 17 per cent, assessment waiting times are down 22 per cent, and total days delayed is down 12 per cent."

The latest performance data for major Welsh emergency departments, released on November 21, showed 1,493 bed days lost to patients unable to leave hospital despite being medically fit to do so, a decrease of 53 compared to last October.

Mabon ap Gwynfor renews his calls for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to reopen the Dyfi ward at Ysbyty Tywyn in the south of Gwynedd.

He says, "that ward has been closed now for three years. It was meant to be closed temporarily. The problem in terms of getting the number of nurses there hasn't been solved. There are 16 beds in that hospital that sit idle at the moment, and offer themselves as a perfect solution for a community service, to discharge people from Bronglais to be returned to the community."

Image source, Senedd Cymru

Llywydd Elin Jones conducts a ballot to determine the names of members who may table questions to the first minister.

The first minister's Labour colleague and former minister John Griffiths seeks an update on "how the Welsh government is working with the UK government to implement the recommendations of the South East Wales Transport Commission's final report from November 2020".

First Minister Eluned Morgan says "the UK government has committed £445 million for rail upgrades in Wales, delivering the Burns stations. We developed the business case, funded the early design work and pushed hard for this investment. Now, both governments, Network Rail and Transport for Wales are taking it forward. This means more reliable services, more capacity and better connections for communities across Newport and Cardiff, starting to put right the decades of underinvestment in Welsh rail."

John Griffiths calls on the first minister to "redouble your efforts to work with UK government to ensure that we see that work on the ground happening very quickly".

Proposals for new train stations in south-east Wales emerged after the planned M4 relief road was scrapped.

Conservative Natasha Asghar says "there should never have been a need for the commission to be created in the first place because the government should have planned and delivered the much-needed M4 relief road in the first place. That important infrastructure project would have radically transformed the M4, from a car park, which it's now often known as, into a free-flowing key arterial route, supporting our economy, residents and visitors as well."

The Burns Commission into improving transport in the region said trains should stop at Cardiff East, Newport West, Somerton, Llanwern, and a station for the communities of Magor and Undy.

New rail projects for Wales worth £445m were announced by the Labour Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in her spending review in June this year. The Treasury backed plans for five new stations in Cardiff, Newport and Monmouthshire, as well as upgrades in north Wales, with £348m to be spent between 2026 and 2030. The rest of the cash will be spent over ten years. Opposition politicians in the Conservatives, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats were scathing of the overall 10-year timeline.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Eluned Morgan’s forty-fifth session of First Minister's Questions.

The Siambr (Senedd chamber) has closed for renovations until March 2026, as work is underway on altering it to accommodate the 96 Members who will be chosen in the next Senedd election in May 2026.

So the 60 MSs are meeting in Siambr Hywel, the original debating chamber that housed the then National Assembly for Wales from 1999 to 2006.

The meeting is held in a hybrid format, with some members in Siambr Hywel and others joining by video-conference.

You can click on the play button above to watch the proceedings from 1.30pm.