For Welsh Ministers, saying sorry was just one part of a hard week as many long running issues came to a head and caused headaches in Cathays Park.
On Monday, Education Minister Huw Lewis was accused of bring irresponsible for suggesting a Welsh Labour Government would continue to fund tuition fees for Welsh students at English universities. Critics of the policy argue it is unsustainable and leaves Welsh universities underfunded. This was the latest salvo in an increasingly bitter dispute between the HE sector and the Welsh Government which is proposing a budget cut. The sector claims the cut risks standards and services but Mr Lewis is having none of it. By the end of the week, he was telling the sector to “stop special pleading”.
On Tuesday, the Public Accounts Committee published its long awaited report of the Regeneration Investment Fund Wales. This was a mechanism set up to fund regeneration projects in the depths of the recession by selling Welsh Government land reserves. Which it did for much less than they were worth. Cue fury from the Opposition parties and a rare and rather terse apology from First Minister Carwyn Jones at First Minister’s Questions.
Wednesday saw another barrage of bad news from Welsh Ministers as the Wales Audit Office published a report which suggested that the Welsh Government had paid as much as £32million too much for Cardiff Airport when it bought it from Spanish owners, Abertis in 2012. The Welsh Conservatives, who have long criticised the Welsh Government’s handling of the airport said this was a "stunning failure to safeguard taxpayers' money".
On Thursday, BBC Wales was leading on figures which show NHS patients in Wales wait longer for treatment and diagnosis than patients in England for most of the main treatment categories. Not a good headline with less than 100 days to go before an election in which NHS performance will be intensely scrutinised.
There have been two noticeable features about this week
Firstly, as is often the case in Scotland and Westminster, there have been no calls for Ministerial resignations. An indication of the less combative politics which operates in Wales, perhaps.
Secondly, there are limited opportunities for AMs to quiz Ministers on the issues of the day. Aside from FMQs, there are Urgent Questions but these are entirely within the gift of the Presiding Officer and she chose to turn down questions on both RIFW and Cardiff Airport.
There is some comfort for Ministers though. They’re still standing and steady progress was made on three of the four remaining Bills to be passed by the Assembly. Final amendments regarding climate change and biodiversity targets were made to the Environment (Wales) Bill. There were also Stage 2 amendments to the Public Health (Wales) Bill and the Tax Collection and Management (Wales) Bill. The Historic Environment (Wales) Bill will be wrapped up next week.