DEFENCE TRAINING ACADEMY AT ST ATHAN

That this House welcomes the Ministry of Defence's decision in 2007 to award the Metrix Consortium a major contract for a new Defence Training Academy at St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan; believes that this will both dramatically improve the training provided to UK armed forces and bring 1,000 construction jobs and more than 5,000 other jobs to South Wales; recognises the campaign led by the South Wales Echo and the enormous public support for the bid from the whole of Wales; is shocked by Plaid Cymru Vice President Jill Evans MEP's ill-informed attacks on the Academy in a policy paper that is being considered by her party's National Council; notes that she says she has not been asked by her party colleagues to tone down her comments; further notes that Metrix is pursuing a second defence training contract for St Athan; and calls on the leadership of Plaid Cymru unambiguously to support the Defence Academy in St Athan and thereby back new jobs for Wales and better training for UK armed forces.