Plaid won't cut £1k grant for students studying outside Wales, insists leader
BBCPlaid Cymru's leader has denied the party would restrict a £1,000 grant currently paid to all Welsh university students to only those studying in Wales.
Rhun ap Iorwerth's comments, on the BBC's Question Time programme, appear to abandon a policy announced only last year for a future Plaid Welsh government.
Revealing last April that Plaid could end the grant for students attending universities outside Wales, the party's economy spokesperson Luke Fletcher said "we're in effect subsidising English universities when Welsh universities are really struggling".
But asked on Thursday night, by Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds, if he would "cut the grants", ap Iorwerth insisted: "No."
Appearing on the Question Time programme in Cardiff, ahead of May's Senedd election, Plaid Cymru's leader said he wanted the support of other parties to "build consensus around a new model of funding".
"There's a £100m black hole facing our universities," he warned.
Pressed by presenter Fiona Bruce to clarify if he was saying he would not be cutting student grants, the Plaid Cymru leader said "No, there is no plan".
Labour's Huw Irranca-Davies then weighed in on the matter, asking: "Will you allow young people to study anywhere they want to, on the right course that they want to?"
Ap Iorwerth replied: "Correct, as my children did, yes, but I want to incentivise them.
"They can study in Wales. We want to incentivise them.
"If they leave Wales, I want them to come back and they want to bring in new talent as well to work in Wales to feed our economy."
The exchange came as part of a discussion about how politicians could offer "hope" to young people.
The Wales Green Party leader Anthony Slaughter said the "cost of living crisis" was hitting young people the hardest saying they are "looking at a bleak future".
Slaughter said his party would help young people with pledges to freeze rents and provide free public transport.
"These are all issues that affect people in their daily lives. But what gives me hope?
"Our party in the last few months in Wales has quadrupled in size, and the vast majority of those people are young people, keen activists who want to get out there and make the world a better place.
"They want hope, and that's what we're offering."
To stop young people leaving Wales, Reform UK's Dan Thomas said his party would bring big businesses in and "encourage them to grow".
Referring to resurrecting previously abandoned plans for an M4 relief road in south Wales, and further road building, he said "we're going to unclog the M4 and our roads" in a bid to say "Wales is open for business".
'Magic moment'
Welsh Conservative Darren Millar highlighted his party's plan to scrap the Welsh version of stamp duty - the land transaction tax (LTT) - on the purchase of main homes.
He said the policy would help both young people and the economy as a whole.
"I can remember the first time I took the keys to my own front door and opened it.
"It was a magic moment in my life and I want other people to have that opportunity too.
"That's why we will scrap stamp duty for people's main homes and that will fire up our economy because every time a house is sold, you can activate all that spending in the economy.
"The painters, the plumbers, the tilers, the carpet fitters, the bathroom fitters. All of that is a virtuous cycle that will help our economy to create jobs."
Welsh Liberal Democrat Jane Dodds said young people need to have a "sense of Wales, have a vision, something to absolutely keep them here".
"We have a school leavers guarantee, which says that within three months of leaving school every young person will have a plan to get a job, will have a plan for a placement or in education.
"That is about us actually locking in that young person to remain here in Wales."
Huw Irranca-Davies, for Welsh Labour, said he did not want to limit the ambitions of anyone to go anywhere they wanted to, but that there were great opportunities for young people in Wales.
"We have in the south east of Wales strip an incredible advantage in cyber security and AI technology", he said, adding "it's based around the strengths of Cardiff and Swansea universities who are supplying those graduates into it".
