The leaders of Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour clashed over spending initiatives in the Senedd with Mark Drakeford accusing Adam Price of spending money every time he got to his feet.
The men led their parties into a co-operation agreement last year which has seen the Welsh Government commit to a series of spending initiatives including extending free school meals to all primary school pupils and extending free childcare to all two-year-olds. Critics have argued that the only way of funding the spending plans is to take money out of the Welsh Government's core budgets for areas like health, education and transport.
And First Minister Mark Drakeford responded angrily during Prime Minister's Questions when Mr Price argued that the Welsh Government should impose freeze or cap on bus and rail fares as has been seen in other parts of the UK such as Manchester.
Visibly annoyed, he said said: "The leader of Plaid Cymru has three opportunities this afternoon to explain to people in Wales how he would fund the proposals that he puts in front of us. Every time he gets to his feet, he spends more money. Every time he does it, he can't offer us a single suggestion as to which Welsh public service would have to be reduced in order to fund his latest wheezes."
Drakeford had said that the "real world experience" was that these caps did not pay for themselves with increased use.
To this the Plaid leader replied: "I have to say the argument you're making is directly in contradiction to what Labour-affiliated unions...are saying...that a substantial reduction could help us increase a modal shift that will create a new habit of using public transport, which will actually have benefits in terms of revenue generation.
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"Let's move from rail to buses. The Labour mayor of the north-west of England, Andy Burnham, has capped bus journey fares in Greater Manchester to £2 for adults and £1 for children, and, indeed, the UK Government now is going to follow that for England in January of next year. Why don't we do the same in Wales? Capping it to £2 would have pretty much the average cost of a single journey in Swansea. It would address the huge increase we've seen in Arriva bus fares in north-west Wales. Are you comfortable, First Minister, with a Labour regional mayor in England and a Conservative Government in England doing more for bus travellers at the moment than a Labour Government here in Wales?"
Mr Drakeford refuted the idea that he was contradicting Labour affiliated union saying: "Now, I think Members here might understand that unions affiliated to the Labour Party are a little bit more likely to talk to us than they maybe are to talk to him, and I can assure you—. [i nterruption after protests from Plaid members ] You may not like it, but it turns out to be true. And I can assure you that when we talk to them, they understand the limitations of what Welsh Government budgets can do, even if he doesn't."
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