A closer look at the Welsh Liberal Democrat manifesto

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have been in something of a struggle for relevance in recent years, in electoral terms.

They have been reduced to just one elected politician in Cardiff Bay since 2016, but believe this election offers them a chance to re-establish themselves as a group in the Senedd chamber.

Jane Dodds, the Welsh Lib Dem leader, has been open about the fact she does not expect to be running the government in Wales after 7 May.

But her party could play a role, possibly a crucial one, in deciding which of the bigger parties' leaders gets to be first minister.

The contents of the Welsh Lib Dem manifesto would be Dodds's starting point in any such negotiations.

So what do some of our specialists make of it?

BBC Wales has been told Plaid Cymru would spend £500,000 on a commission looking at independence, and Jane Dodds is strongly stressing her opposition to this.

The Welsh Lib Dems have made stopping independence second only to protecting the NHS on their list of top five priorities.

Dodds has even said she doesn't want a "penny" to be spent on this sort of stuff.

"We wouldn't support any government that spends money on independence," she said at Tuesday manifesto launch.

Where this would leave the Lib Dems in any post-election negotiations with Plaid is a really good question.

But maybe it is one Dodds would be happy to grapple with next month, from the more comfortable position of having some fellow Lib Dems sat around her in the Senedd.

While there are several manifesto pledges aimed at health and social care, very few come with detailed explanations about how they will be achieved.

For example, there's a bold promise to guarantee that 100% of cancer patients will start treatment within the target of 62-days from an urgent referral, with the introduction of a national cancer plan.

What makes it bold is that the current target is 75% but the achieved figures have languished around 57% for some time, and there's little detail about what a plan would contain to make that leap.

Likewise a promise of guaranteeing everyone with an urgent dental need access to an NHS dentist doesn't set out how that will be done, at a time when a new contract has meant some in the profession are handing back their NHS contracts.

However, their manifesto does include a tangible investment in 5,000 new or refurbished "nursing-care placements" to help "end corridor care" and "bring down waiting lists".

The suggestion is that these placements would offer a step-down facility to allow more patients to be discharged from overcrowded hospitals.

The Lib Dems say there should be at least one Welsh medium and one English medium point of education within an hour's drive in rural areas and 30 minutes in urban areas by 2035.

The need to spend scarce resources as efficiently as possible is often given as the reason for closing small schools with low pupil numbers, and funding is currently the biggest issue for most schools across Wales.

The Lib Dems say they would increase school and college funding per pupil above the rate of inflation every year.

There are also big questions about the future of the Taith programme, which was set up after the UK pulled out of Erasmus+ to give young people opportunities to study abroad.

Now the UK is re-joining Erasmus there are doubts about whether Taith should carry on.

But the Lib Dems say they'd carry on investing in it alongside membership of the EU programme.

The current system of student finance for Welsh students was introduced under a Lib Dem education minister - and the party says it should continue for Welsh students "no matter where they study".

But that's at a time when there are big questions about the affordability of the system.

There have long been calls for the social workforce to have the same pay and progression as those who work in the NHS.

The Lib Dems say they will support a foundation of a "Royal College of Care Workers" to improve professional recognition, standards and progression.

No mention of pay equity in the manifesto though, or how to increase the number of care workers, of which there currently is a shortage.

The latest Social Care Wales data shows there are more than 5,000 vacancies in the sector.

The Lib Dems say they would raise the Welsh rate of income tax by 1p to invest in social care, if necessary.

Talking about the current lack of provision, Jane Dodds said "there are 1,400 people in our hospitals in Wales who don't need to be there".

BBC Verify says that according to the latest StatsWales figures, in February 2026 there were 1,444 people in Welsh hospitals who could not leave because the care, support or suitable accommodation was not yet available to them.

The figure is a snapshot of a day in February, so it doesn't tell us the total number of delays over the whole month.

Although the February figure was higher than January's, the number of days that people were stuck in hospital has improved.

In February, the total number of days was 60,601 - 42 days per person.

In January it was 61,876 or 44 per person.

The Lib Dems are positioning themselves as champions for the environment, saying this "lies at the heart of who we are".

The manifesto is unambiguous on the need for action to protect nature and fight climate change, with cleaning up rivers and seas one of the party's top five priorities.

You can imagine how asks like more cash for Natural Resources Wales, or a blue flag style water quality scheme for rivers could form part of negotiations with a future Welsh government in need of their support.

There will be questions over how they'd propose to achieve some of the more headline-grabbing pledges.

What is the time-frame for implementing a "ban" on sewage dumping, for instance - a massive, costly infrastructure project.

And where does the money come from for what appears to be a big uplift in funding committed to the environment more broadly - from increased woodland planting, a target to "double nature" by 2050 and an extra £50m a year to support nature-friendly farming?

The Lib Dems say they want to be "honest with voters about the cost of protecting our public services".

So if the UK government does not change the way Wales is funded, the party says it would be prepared to increase Welsh rates of income tax by 1p for "an emergency period" to put an extra £300m into social care.

The party says this would take pressure off the NHS by making it easier to free up beds for people who need them.

A penny increase on each of the three income tax bands would raise around £388m in 2027-28.

But with the cost of living a top concern for Welsh voters in this election, it remains to be seen how many people might be prepared to vote for an increase in their tax bill.

Like the majority of the main parties in this election, the Lib Dems are also promising to expand free childcare in Wales.

In this case to 30 hours a week, 48 weeks of the year for children aged nine months to four years old.

This is a costly commitment and also logistically challenging in terms of getting qualified staff and appropriate facilities in the right places.

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