Leanne Wood: Today is about facts. There has been a lot of debate; there have been lots of accusations that we over here don't understand what's going on, but now the time for rhetoric is over. This is about a reasoned argument against a Bill that will weaken this Assembly. Llywydd, tonight, we'll see a Labour Government vote with the Tories and UKIP to support Westminster's EU withdrawal Bill, a Bill...
Leanne Wood: Will you take an intervention?
Leanne Wood: Do you take any responsibility for your party's actions in Government for any of the statistics that you've just read out?
Leanne Wood: Whatever your political hue, we can all agree that not a single child should grow up in poverty. Not a single child should face the indignity and stigma that poverty brings. I want to start by outlining the context in which I'm calling for change. We've heard the statistics. Child poverty here is higher than any other UK nation. What does this mean for our children? It means that a third of...
Leanne Wood: Well, I can help you. I can tell you that your economic action plan, which you rely upon heavily to reduce poverty, has a mention just once of 'poverty'. It's on page 24, and it's in a list. Now, it's the poverty of ambition from this Government that is leading to the poverty of our children. Just last week I called on the Minister to join Plaid Cymru in supporting the devolution of welfare...
Leanne Wood: You've refused to take responsibility and you are more than happy to keep blaming the Tories for something that you could have within your gift. Also, the devolution of benefits would be cost neutral because the block grant to the Scottish Government was adjusted upwards to reflect the transfer of responsibility for welfare. By making some changes, we could alleviate pressure on the NHS and...
Leanne Wood: 1. What is the Welsh Government doing to ensure that workers get paid the real living wage? OAQ52252
Leanne Wood: That sounds great, First Minister, but workers at Cardiff Airport would appreciate deeds rather than warm words. You bought this airport in 2013, yet we still have workers, some of whom live in the Rhondda, who are being paid less than this living wage. An agreement with the General Municipal Boilermakers will see the airport, and I quote, 'working towards being in a position to implement...
Leanne Wood: Diolch, Llywydd. A third of Welsh children live in poverty. Does the First Minister believe his Government or the Conservatives in Westminster are best placed to tackle this national crisis?
Leanne Wood: First Minister, you are the Government of Wales and you can take responsibility. You can lift people out of poverty, yet you are choosing not to. Your Ministers claim that the devolution of welfare administration would undermine the social union of the UK. Now, putting aside the fact that every other Government in the UK has power to administer welfare, does he think this reckless undermining...
Leanne Wood: So, these levers exist, yet you don't want to have control over them. You talk of strategies, and you bemoan the Tories' welfare policies, while your only real action is to cut the benefits under the responsibility of your own Government: school uniform grant, cut; independent living grant, cut; the education improvement grant, cut; Communities First, cut. A third of Welsh children are living...
Leanne Wood: I knew that was coming. Surprise, surprise.
Leanne Wood: It feels a bit like this Government is lurching from one shambles to another. The Welsh Government has today awarded a £5 billion rail franchise to the majority state-owned French rail company Keolis, and Spanish infrastructure corporation Amey—both for-profit, multimillion-pound international corporations. Now, I'd like to pick up on a question that has been asked, but hasn't yet been...
Leanne Wood: —this for-profit railway will deliver benefits for passengers. Does he accept that it will deliver fewer benefits than a not-for-profit railway? If not, why then did he commit, on multiple occasions, to deliver a not-for-profit railway? There are many more questions, Dirprwy Lywydd, but I will finish with this. Today, the Labour Party are holding a debate in Westminster on nationalising the...
Leanne Wood: Diolch, Llywydd. How much profit are KeolisAmey expected to make out of Welsh rail passengers during the next 15 years?
Leanne Wood: First Minister, there's been talk of this 3 per cent cap on profits, and if that is true, that is no cap at all. Because according to the rail industry's own trade body, the Rail Delivery Group, the average operating profit for a rail company is 2.9 per cent. So, this means that your cap is higher than the average profit margin for train companies. Putting that aside, the Wales and borders...
Leanne Wood: First Minister, a cap of 3 per cent will see profits to KeolisAmey in the region of between £100 million and £150 million from this contract. Whether you pay them now or in five years' time means that the Welsh taxpayer is putting money in the pockets of private company shareholders instead of reinvesting it back in our own rail network. That's £150 million that could have been spent on...
Leanne Wood: Diolch, Llywydd. One year later, there was no such clause in the Wales Act of 2017. Despite this, your Government obediently voted to accept this new devolution deal from your friends in the Conservative Government at the UK level. Now, Plaid Cymru didn't dance to Westminster's tune. Plaid Cymru voted against that Bill. First Minister, do you now regret backing the Tories by voting for the...
Leanne Wood: There is definitely more that can be done on this front, First Minister, when you consider that the latest figures from the Home Office show that hate crimes are up by a fifth in Wales in just one year. The majority of the 2,941 offences recorded—and we know that there will be many more incidents that go unreported—are related to race or religion, and if you combine this with Nazi...
Leanne Wood: Last week, a woman who wanted help with her mother's personal independence payment assessment came to see me. The mother, a domestic abuse survivor, suffers from a range of conditions sustained as a result of a violent attack by her partner back in 2009. She's arthritic, she's got a range of skin conditions, internal organ problems, having been viciously attacked by a hammer and a Stanley...
