Suzy Davies: Well, Members, I think we’re standing on the threshold of something really rather significant. I think it takes a certain level of courage to face global political shifts and then to determine to bring good from them. Sometimes, drawing out that good can be seismic in itself, and that’s an adoption of new thinking. Now, with some of my colleagues, I’ve just come back from CERN in...
Suzy Davies: Diolch yn fawr, Lywydd. Can I just thank the Cabinet Secretary for her statement as well? Any money going towards the arts is not going to find complaint with me, but I think there are some important questions that still need answering, despite your answers to various individuals who’ve asked them today. I completely take your point that the decisions about how this money should be spent...
Suzy Davies: First Minister, I hope that the Cabinet Secretary’s meeting in April will be fruitful in promoting our shellfish to the whole of the world, not just to the European Union. But, as you know, the level of parasites found in cockles from the Burry inlet, just off the Gower coast, is higher than expected. Of course, if we are to meet the global demand, we need our cockles to survive. The...
Suzy Davies: Okay. Thank you.
Suzy Davies: Good. [Laughter.] Minister, your point about removing barriers between school and college actually is very well made, and I would agree with you on that. You have been saying, actually, pretty much until the end there, all the right things, but we do need to see them happen now. Really, I’m just begging you: stop moaning and plan. Plan to spend that £400 million. Parity of esteem is not...
Suzy Davies: Thank you very much. Well, sorry to disappoint you, Minister, it’s me who’s going to be winding you up—sorry, winding the debate up. Parity of esteem—that’s what we’ve been talking about today, until it sort of all lost its way in the last few minutes there. I think it’s an important point to make that this was quite a consensual debate, and for a very good reason as well:...
Suzy Davies: First of all, can I please say thank you to everyone who’s supporting this today, and thank you also to the Cabinet Secretary, because I’m not against what he’s planning to do? What I’m saying is it’s going to take way too long. It takes two hours to train a child to save a life; it takes 10 minutes to kill a cardiac arrest victim. So, I’m disappointed that you haven’t been able...
Suzy Davies: Diolch, Lywydd. Could I also thank the Assembly for the chance to be the first Member to make use of this new piece of business? I’d also like to thank my former office manager, Mark Major, who brought the whole subject to my attention when I first became an Assembly Member. A six-year campaign began with a statement of opinion in 2011, seeking support for the mandatory teaching of...
Suzy Davies: You mentioned the forward look plan there, but, according to officials, Swansea council’s admittedly rather controversial local development plan is likely to be delayed now, and part of the twenty-first century schools programme aims to address the issue of capacity, of course, in schools that are both overcrowded and those that have surplus places. If the local development plan is delayed,...
Suzy Davies: Diolch, Lywydd. Thank you very much for your statement today, and for the information that you’ve given us. I certainly appreciate that. One of the things I wanted to ask you about was one of the key actions in the heart conditions delivery plan, namely the plan to have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest plan for Wales—something I’d certainly welcome. Now, that plan would ensure that...
Suzy Davies: I suppose the first question I should ask you, Cabinet Secretary, is whether the information that Len McCluskey is asking for is already with you. In September, you answered questions in this Chamber on the situation at the Ford plant based on reassurances that you’d had in June that year. In particular, you said that Ford had told you that there was no surplus of labour in the short term....
Suzy Davies: Will the First Minister make a statement on the Heart Conditions Delivery Plan of January 2017?
Suzy Davies: Will you take an intervention?
Suzy Davies: Thank you very much for taking the intervention. I was just listening to your point about driving down the costs within the private sector; would you accept as well that there’s a difficulty with local authorities being able to pay more to those private contractors as well?
Suzy Davies: Diolch, Ddirprwy Lywydd. I welcome this debate and move our amendments. Perhaps I might also mention that Members will have the opportunity to develop the positions put forward today in a debate that the Welsh Conservatives will be tabling in the next few weeks. I think we should really keep this in our line of sight. It is something we should be discussing often, particularly with the...
Suzy Davies: Last week you mentioned that some Vibrant and Viable Places projects were going to be getting more money because of underspends in other areas, which strikes me as slightly odd, that some local authorities seem be quite bad at following guidelines if some are underspending and others haven’t got enough money. Because we’re not talking just about replacing falling-down car parks here;...
Suzy Davies: There is plenty of opposition, still, to Mynydd y Gwair, and local residents are concerned about the potential impact on the local bat population as well. I raise this as the lesser horseshoe bat champion for the Assembly. Residents do point to the recent Exeter university report on bat mortality caused by blade disruption to sonar and to the potential of roosts near the proposed access track...
Suzy Davies: Along the same lines, Cabinet Secretary, you know how vulnerable the Gower cockle industry is because of early stock deaths in the Burry estuary. Perhaps the great repeal Bill will safeguard this industry by retaining the shellfish regulations of the European Union, but it won’t actually protect shellfish markets within the European Union at the moment. So, how is the Welsh Government...
Suzy Davies: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on empowering local communities?
Suzy Davies: Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your statement. I heartily endorse your comments on needing employers’ buy-in to this, particularly for workplace learning and, of course, for parity of esteem. You mentioned a few times that this is based not on the institution, but that the focus is on the learner and fulfilling the aspirations of learners. Can you give us some indication of...