It emerged today that the Welsh Labour Government spent £5,000 last year monitoring the reach of its own Twitter accounts.

Last month, Welsh Conservatives revealed that Labour Ministers had spent nearly £200,000 since 2011 paying external companies to monitor their own media hits.

In total, £9,040 has been spent monitoring the use of Welsh Government Twitter accounts in the three years since 2011/12.

Paul Davies AM, Shadow Minister for Finance, said, "It is important that the Welsh Government uses appropriate channels to communicate with the people of Wales, including social media.

"However, it seems odd that taxpayers should have to foot the bill for Labour spindoctors to analyse the impact of their Twitter accounts.

"Labour Ministers will dismiss £9,000 as a small sum, which is easy to do when you're spending other people's money.

"Labour Ministers are quick to point out they're strapped for cash yet manage to find money to splash out on Twitter monitoring.

"With a cash-starved NHS, a decline in school standards and a failure to improve Wales' prosperity after 15 years in government, Labour Ministers should have bigger things to worry about than their profile on social media outlets."