Paul Davies: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. It'll come as no surprise to the leader of the house that I, too, continue to receive representations from constituents regarding the lack of delivery when it comes to broadband services. I have whole villages in my constituency, like Mynachlog-ddu, for example, where some infrastructure has been upgraded, but not completed. I know that other Members have...
Alun Davies: ...that is a great way forward for all of us. But let me say, as I conclude, on this matter, we have expected and we expect young people to take decisions on their future life chances at 16. We should not exclude them from taking decisions on their community at 16. The American revolutionaries in the eighteenth century made it very clear to the British Government of that time that there would...
Alun Davies: ...the question. Look, I'm a strong supporter of fair votes, to ensure that your vote counts wherever you happen to live and to encourage people to participate in elections. And I think proportional representation does do that. However, we must all recognise that we don't have the mandate for that at present, and we don't have the support to do that at present, although I would say that, most...
Alun Davies: ...-Sunders raised in her contribution with regard to the lack of competition for some seats in some parts of Wales. But I, and I would suggest that you too, will have to acknowledge that there is not sufficient support currently to move to this system. Without general support across the country, I don’t believe that we should force or impose change of the electoral system on people. We...
Siân Gwenllian: I want to focus on three aspects that you've noted in your statement this afternoon, and all three relate to increasing participation and better representation within local government. The way that young people come into contact with politics in their early years is crucially important for the future of representative democracy, and therefore Plaid Cymru welcomes your intention, as a...
Alun Davies: Presiding Officer, I think the whole Chamber will be with me when I say I'm delighted that I'm not always accountable to this place for the actions of the United Kingdom Labour Party and their press office. I would say to the Conservative spokesperson to perhaps move away from her counsel of despair. We seem to have listened to five or six minutes of a list of all problems and difficulties...
Janet Finch-Saunders: ...the root causes of the problem of voter disengagement and the disconnect with politics felt by so many residents in Wales will be covered by the proposals you are bringing forward. Local authority representation in Wales is in danger of becoming a closed shop. In the 2017 local government elections, 7 per cent of county borough councils seats were left vacant. At town and community council...
Julie James: ...when I've been negotiating my own salary in private sector legal firms and I've been told what my bonus or whatever is going to be and I've said, 'What are the men getting?' In firms where it's not a problem, they tell you instantly and where they won't tell you, it's never because they're not getting as much as you. So, I have to say that one of the things I've also liked since I've been...
Joyce Watson: Diolch, Siân. Thanks very much for bringing this debate. This figure for local government, the representation of women, is 28 per cent if I remember the figure right. At a time when austerity is hitting really hard, right down to local government budgets, the lack of women around the table in the first place and the serious lack of women driving the economic agendas forward in cabinets is of...
Julie Morgan: ...of issues that you look at, but I think there has been such a long history and such a long struggle that we do owe it to everybody in Wales—to women and men—to make sure that we have equal representation here. I just think we must never forget that what we do here in this Assembly is working for the good of the people of Wales, and we're trying to improve people in Wales's lives, and,...
Siân Gwenllian: ...more generally. And women do that far more often than their male counterparts. For the sake of natural fairness, but also in order to remove the barriers facing women generally, we must have 50:50 representation among those making decisions here in Wales. And that is why I agree entirely with the recent proposals made by the expert panel on Assembly reform, which suggest making it a...
Julie James: ...last question is 'yes'. In fact, I've just commissioned a piece of work jointly with my officials in Chwarae Teg to see how we can make sure there is good gender representation—half and half, not 40 per cent—on all public boards sponsored by the Welsh Government in this Assembly term. I'm hoping to be able to report back when they've done that small piece of work to get that agenda...
Siân Gwenllian: ...senior management in the public sector. You will be aware that the Equality and Human Rights Commission has noted this clearly, having identified that there hadn't been a general improvement in representation in senior roles and that women and people from ethnic minorities continue to be less likely to be in senior positions. Despite the fact that the number of women in senior positions...
Mark Isherwood: ...commitment? Would you also tell me why there's been no Welsh Government conversation with Bus Users Cymru regarding rail-bus integration? What is Transport for Wales doing regarding bus passenger representation, as well as engagement with sector providers? Clearly, you will be aware of D Jones & Son, Acrefair bus operators, ceasing to operate just before Christmas, following the demise of...
Adam Price: ...lay an order to transfer rail franchising functions to Welsh Ministers shortly. Could you say a little bit about—how shortly is shortly? And the fallback that you refer to if those functions are not transferred—under which circumstances can you envisage that having to be utilised? Is it the circumstance in which you're not able to reach a final agreement on some of the issues that you...
Vaughan Gething: ...and better manage workloads. For example, the bay cluster in Swansea makes prudent use of a paramedic to carry out house calls. That has resulted in people, often the elderly, being seen sooner and not having to wait for the GP to finish surgery. And, in the Llanelli cluster, they've appointed two social prescribers who are helping people access the care they need from a wide range of...
Angela Burns: ...a set of recommendations that we believe would enhance the development and authority of the GP cluster network in Wales. We heard of so much good practice by GP clusters where there is a strong representation and involvement by other healthcare professionals, such as occupational therapists, physiotherapists, palliative care nurses and mental health specialists. We heard of examples...
Ken Skates: ...asked about the role of Finance Wales as it was, and the development bank as it now is. The development bank is monitoring the progress of the business, but the reason that Finance Wales was not able to take an asset investment in TVR was, in part, because it could not take an investment in TVR, because the company was, at the time, located outside of Wales. We were able to, on the...
Janet Finch-Saunders: More than one of your predecessors pledged to introduce webcasting of council meetings and, in doing so, provided £40,000 to each local authority. I have received representations from residents in Conwy, across north Wales and beyond, from as far as the Vale of Glamorgan and Rhondda Cynon Taf, who are concerned that they are unable to access the democratic decision-making processes as...
Siân Gwenllian: ...to seeing how exactly you're going to sustain that important accountability, which is what I was asking about. Turning now to the electoral system and the White Paper on local government reform, it notes that reforming the electoral system to the single transferable vote would not be mandatory to all councils in Wales and that councils would have a choice to bring it forward or not. In my...
