Alun Cairns AM is in the chair and means business

Alun Cairns AM and Chair of the Assembly's Finance Committee has spoken frankly on his blog about scrutiny of the 'One Wales' budget.

He talks about the failure of scrutiny in past Assembly Committees and the need for all this to change with the current set up. He also mentions his previous 'scraps' with Minister Andrew Davies, and the how the committee will effectively tackle scrutiny of the budget over the coming weeks.

He goes on to say:

The big challenge for me is to see how the priorities in ‘One Wales’ are to be reflected in government’s budget. This is the time to scrutinise the affordability or the extent of commitments. Commitments have also been made on the money saved from the bonfire if the Quangos and I suspect some members will want to look for evidence that the figures are being achieved.

Being serious, I take the role as chairman of the committee seriously and will act independently and in a balanced way; however, we need to couple this with the general lack of scrutiny in the past and anyone (ministers in particular) giving evidence should be able to answer the basic premise of funding priority
following One Wales.

Alun has spoken about his commitment to the function of the committee and his role. As a 'Scottish' terrier known for biting the nether regions of past Labour Government Ministers in the Assembly, we could be in for an interesting month or so.