Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much to everybody who’s taken part in both debates this afternoon: the debate that we heard the Minister talking about there, about overall funding, and the debate that we actually presented to the Assembly earlier, about direct funding through the Family Fund to some of the most vulnerable families in Wales. I think said in my opening remarks that I think there’s a good...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Read the Record in the morning. We are talking—[Interruption.]
Rhun ap Iorwerth: The Government Minister stated that support exists in other ways. I agree that support exists in other ways. I agree that it’s a very good idea to work with Citizens Advice in order to ensure that people have the support that they need to access benefits as much as possible. I agree with strategies on increasing respite, though not enough is being done. I agree that the third sector as a...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 8. Will the First Minister make a statement on the duties of Traffic Officers in north Wales? OAQ(5)0508(FM)[W]
Rhun ap Iorwerth: As the leader of the house has just confirmed, traffic officers in north Wales patrol the A55 until Llanfairpwll. Of course, the A55 doesn’t stop at Llanfairpwll; it continues all the way across Anglesey to the port of Holyhead. This, according to police officers, is causing them problems, because it ties up resources in dealing with road accidents and so on, which doesn’t happen in other...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I’m grateful to the Minister and officials for making sure that the service was able to continue without a break. The leader of the Conservatives says that he lives within spitting distance of the airport in Cardiff and he says that he uses the service from time to time to get up to Anglesey, but, as somebody who is somewhat isolated from those five-hour journeys from north to south Wales,...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I would also like to add to those words of the Cabinet Secretary. I certainly congratulate the panel on a very thorough review, yes, completed within a tight schedule, and a review I think that makes a number of very important recommendations that will, I have no doubt, improve the lives of many patients. The review, of course, was secured by Plaid Cymru in that post-election agreement,...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I’m pleased to be a supporter of this motion today. As a nation, the sea is in our blood. It’s part of our fabric, part of our history, our culture, our literature even—from Cynan’s wild waves of the sea in ‘Aberdaron’ to Ceiriog inviting us all to row with the waves to Ynys Môn. But, just as the sea has provided inspiration to poets of the past, the question for us as we stand...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will you take an intervention?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Would you recognise that the shellfish industry is also a very important part of our fishing industry, that some 97 per cent of shellfish from the Menai strait is exported to the European Union and that they are very frightened about the possible effects of World Trade Organization tariffs of maybe 40 per cent on their exports?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: The efficiency of what you can achieve with social services funding depends, of course, on what happens within the NHS and vice versa. I believe that it’s the failure of Government to put firm and sustainable foundations in place for the NHS that is responsible for the overspend that has been announced over the past day or two. But does the First Minister agree with my concern that forcing...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on orthopaedic waiting times in north west Wales?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Diolch, Llywydd. My colleague Steffan Lewis yesterday asked the First Minister to reopen a specialist mother and baby perinatal unit, following the closure of Wales’s last unit in 2013. The First Minister said that, in the past few years, fewer than five new mothers were referred to an in-patient unit in Wales. I’ve no idea what he was talking about—we haven’t got a mother and baby...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Referring to the answer of the First Minister yesterday, Steffan Lewis asked specifically, as I have done today, about mother and baby unit referrals. We have no mother and baby unit in Wales. Community services, they only came in three years after the closures, but, of course, we appreciate that they’re needed. But, in instances of post-partum psychosis, for example, we need in-patient...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: But where units are based does matter. It matters in terms of access, as the Royal College of Psychiatrists say. It is quite clear, I think, from our figures and case studies, that the consequences of outsourcing have been to see mothers choosing no in-patient treatment over treatment that means separation from their families. So, patient care has suffered. There are child safety issues...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you for the short written statement today. We all, of course, share the aspiration of the Minister of ensuring that Sport Wales does operate in the most effective way possible, but there are serious questions to ask, I think, in terms of how the Government managed to allow this body to reach the level of ineffectiveness. And what the statement today and the latest steps do is prove...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Could I thank Margaret Hutcheson for submitting this very important petition? I read the report with great interest and some shock as well, because the petition itself noted the astonishing effect that ovarian cancer has had. We’ve heard some of the figures already: in 2014, 365 women diagnosed and 238 women died of this disease. The percentage of those who failed to survive is incredibly...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Can I welcome those words? Would the Member agree that support has to be at all times more than just words? I think what you’re saying also is that words must be matched with action, and that we must accept that there will be opposition in places, and that, where there is opposition, we must work with those people to explain to them, which is why I believe there is a duty on all of us here...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Would you see that the very core issue at the heart of this debate is that, if we are to give people the choice over whether to use the Welsh language in their adult lives, we have to give them the ability to speak that language, and that education is the key way to ensure that they have those skills?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: A statement by Lloyd’s Bank this week that they intend to shrink a number of bank branches is concerning in a number of ways, particularly in terms of the job cuts that that is bound to lead to, and the erosion in the face-to-face counter service available, but we could also take a positive view of the announcement in part, because what we seem to be seeing is the bank adapting in response...
