Rhianon Passmore: Thank you very much, and I also welcome the statement today. Earlier this month, I spoke to my Labour Party membership in Islwyn regarding the work of the commission and the interim report, and my sense from that meeting and wider discussions is that there's still much to be done in totality to communicate the work of the independent commission on the constitutional future of Wales. Because...
Rhianon Passmore: Will you take an intervention?
Rhianon Passmore: With regard a complete lack of capital funding for Wales and the complete and utter lack of infrastructure funding over the last 10 years, how can you explain that?
Rhianon Passmore: 4. What action is the Welsh Government taking to raise educational standards in Islwyn? OQ59097
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you for that response, Minister. Markham Primary School sits in the constituency of Islwyn, built over 110 years ago in 1913, serving the local community. It's a green but not a leafy suburb. Will you join me in congratulating Markham's headteacher, Mrs Lindsey Pritchard, her staff, governors and pupils for a glowing report from Estyn that extolled praise on the school in its recent...
Rhianon Passmore: 4. How is the Welsh Government supporting the future of public libraries in Islwyn? OQ59143
Rhianon Passmore: The Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 makes it a duty for the Welsh Government—
Rhianon Passmore: I will. Thank you. And I'll come to that secondarily.
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you, and I'll turn to my supplementary question. The Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 makes it a duty for the Welsh Government 'to superintend, and promote the improvement of, the public library service provided by local authorities...and to secure the proper discharge...of the functions in relation to libraries conferred on them as library authorities' under the Act. Minister, in...
Rhianon Passmore: I also welcome the final budget brought by the Welsh Government after much scrutiny and much collaboration, and I thank the Minister, Rebecca Evans. But after a decade of austerity, Brexit and the COVID pandemic, the economy and public services have never been in a more fragile state throughout the United Kingdom. In my view, Britain is breaking. Fundamentally, the Tory UK Government has not...
Rhianon Passmore: 5. What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the health challenges presented by gambling addiction in Islwyn? OQ59228
Rhianon Passmore: Diolch. ITV Wales's political programme Sharp End last week highlighted the issue of problem gambling in Wales, and the charity GambleAware estimate that the number of Britons who have a gambling problem is a staggering 1.4 million people. The availability and accessibility of gambling has never been greater. Today, there is no longer need to visit the bookmaker's shop in town centres, and...
Rhianon Passmore: Do you understand that Wales and the United Kingdom is an outlier globally, and that even the United States, in 41 states, has banned greyhound racing? And do you not understand that, by banning greyhound racing, you will eliminate immediate suffering and you will also go a huge way to eliminating illegal trade from Northern Ireland?
Rhianon Passmore: Will you take an intervention?
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you so much. Would you agree, then, that, in regard to the statistics that you've just shared and which are common knowledge to everybody in this Chamber, the longer we wait for a ban, the more animals that will be harmed?
Rhianon Passmore: Minister, thank you for the statement, and I'm heartened that you state that dentistry is one of your top priorities. And even before COVID, it has had a long and chequered past since deregistration. I think we all realise that. For many of my constituents, NHS dentistry, though, still remains incomprehensible at times. I do welcome the many new initiatives in dentistry that you and Welsh...
Rhianon Passmore: As a former teacher, lecturer and council cabinet member for education and consortia chair, I have immersed myself for many years in the educational challenges that face our practitioners every day, day in, day out, but never in more challenging economic and social circumstances. Teachers, as well as us, face the deepest UK inequality since records began, as our schools tackle poverty on the...
Rhianon Passmore: As a named supporter of this Member debate, I want to place on record the work of Jack Sargeant in raising this very critical issue, as many have said, both in this place and beyond. And it is, as many have said today, the sick and the disabled and the elderly and the young who this issue impacts the most upon. It is a result of sheer profit over people, and it's the sick face of...
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you for taking the intervention. How would you respond to this comment from myself—that are you not, by doing this today and supporting this motion, playing two sides of the fence here? On one hand, you acknowledge fully the difficulties in terms of the lack of investment in Wales, the impossibility of what is trying to be done here from your point of view, but now today you are...
Rhianon Passmore: Would you possibly take an intervention?
