Siân Gwenllian: Thank you, Presiding Officer, and I move the motion in the name of Plaid Cymru. Plaid Cymru wants to regain pride in our towns and to tackle the decline that many of them have faced and are facing. These days, a number of our town centres are half empty and are full of shops with boarded-up windows. In such an environment, it’s not surprising that many people choose to go to out-of-town...
Siân Gwenllian: [Yn parhau.]—yn y Rhyl, mae 21.6 y cant o siopau’n wag.
Siân Gwenllian: I am quoting from official statistics. Although, perhaps, there are periods of time in Abergavenny—at the time of the food festival it does appear to be very busy there, but, when you take the whole year into account, facts and statistics demonstrate a different picture, unfortunately. I’m sorry to be negative, but that is the situation, but our motion offers a way of improving that....
Siân Gwenllian: Yes.
Siân Gwenllian: It is up to them locally—it’s their option—but I know that in my area the districts have led to success and have been welcomed by local businesses. What those local businesses were telling me time after time was that parking charges militate against the improvements they’re trying to make, and so this is one way of addressing that. In Caernarfon, for example, there are 347 businesses...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much, and thank you for a lively discussion this afternoon. The Conservatives have conveyed their support for the motion, but I won’t accept amendment 1 because it does broaden the area of work too broadly, and, unfortunately, the current Government loses focus too often, and I wouldn’t want them to do that on this issue. You mentioned high-street pharmacies, and, yes, I...
Siân Gwenllian: Will the First Minister make a statement on health services in Arfon?
Siân Gwenllian: Local development plans, of course, are central to the process of housing provision, and these plans have been established on the basis of historical statistics as regards the level of population growth. Do you therefore agree that it is high time to develop a more effective way of gauging future demand, and also that we need more strategic collaboration between local authorities in housing...
Siân Gwenllian: Contacting public bodies through traditional methods, such as call centres, can be a very difficult and frustrating experience for us all at times, but of course it can be even more difficult for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Therefore, what is the Government doing to ensure that there are alternative ways of making contact available for people who are deaf or hard of hearing in...
Siân Gwenllian: I’m very pleased to participate in this important debate today. I want to concentrate on how public services can assist in terms of mental health care, but also how public services can have a detrimental impact in this area. If I could start with the health service. Unfortunately, we’re staging this debate whilst there is another inquiry into mental health care in the Betsi Cadwaladr...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much and thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this debate in order to discuss the Welsh Language Commissioner’s annual report. I would also like to thank the commissioner and her team for their work during the year. This is a report looking back, and, as important as that is, we were eager to move the debate forward. That is why Plaid Cymru tabled a number of...
Siân Gwenllian: Will the Minister make a statement on workforce plans for the Welsh Revenue Authority?
Siân Gwenllian: First of all, I wish to thank the Cabinet Secretary for presenting the draft budget yesterday. It was good to see a number of the Plaid Cymru priorities being reflected in it, including an additional £25 million for local authorities. As you know, local authorities across Wales have suffered serious cuts to their funding over the years with their resource budgets being reduced by £461...
Siân Gwenllian: I see that the formula has been revised. Could you elaborate, please, on how exactly that has been done?
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you. As a former member of Gwynedd Council’s cabinet with responsibility for finance, I’m very pleased to see that you have now started to amend the formula and that the rural element of social services expenditure can vary and be an additional pressure, of course, on councils covering rural areas. There are many other ways of amending the formula, and several groups, including the...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much. In the narrative on the budget that was announced yesterday, you allude to the fact that the Government will take further steps to reduce the administrative burden on local authorities, by combining grants and viring funding from specific grants to unhypothecated funds, through the revenue support grant. What steps have already been taken to do this?
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you. It’s a pleasure to make a contribution as a member of the committee. I welcome the important piece of work that the committee is to carry out on refugees, asylum seekers and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. We have almost 3,000 people in Wales seeking refuge, which represents 0.1 per cent of the population—a very small figure, but an important and vulnerable cohort of...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Public services of a high quality are central to Welsh life. This is the glue that binds our communities together. Plaid Cymru has always stood for public services, for the people who provide them, and for the communities and homes that rely on them. The public sector is a crucial partner for the private sector, to make Wales a more prosperous, fair and...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much, and thank you for the debate. I do agree with the first speaker, Janet Finch-Saunders, that we do need to be accountable to the people of Wales. For me, improving the quality of public services for future generations is a clear way of being accountable to the people of Wales, and shows our commitment to that. There is no deal with Labour. What’s happened is that Labour...
Siân Gwenllian: Will the First Minister make a statement on apprenticeships in Wales?
