Gareth Davies: I would like to thank Plaid Cymru for tabling this debate this afternoon on a very important and pertinent issue. Apart from a few on the fringes of society, there is no-one on this planet who can deny the calamities facing us, from the changing climate that threatens regular, extreme weather events, like the flooding that devastated my constituency at the start of this year, to the massive...
Gareth Davies: Thank you for your statement this afternoon, Minister, and for providing officials to brief members of the Health and Social Care Committee ahead of this statement. I look forward to scrutinising your plans in detail, but, ahead of their release, I would be grateful if you could answer a couple of questions relating to the care side of preparations. Care Forum Wales have warned that the...
Gareth Davies: Thank you for your statement this afternoon, Counsel General. But my biggest and most pertinent question to you is: why now? Our nation is facing multiple crises, massive challenges, and yet here we are once again devoting time to the constitution. This morning, WalesOnline published the results of the 10 biggest issues facing Wales, as voted on by the people of Wales, your paymasters. The...
Gareth Davies: I would like to put on record my thanks to the teaching profession for their efforts to maintain education standards during this most challenging of periods. Sadly, teachers and school staff have had one hand tied behind their backs during this pandemic. Despite the Welsh Government's lack of leadership during the COVID-19 outbreak, educational standards haven't suffered the decline that many...
Gareth Davies: Thank you very much, Minister, for your statement this afternoon, as well as for allowing Dr Atherton to brief members of the health committee at lunchtime today, which we're really grateful for. Minister, it's quite clear that we will never be able to stop the spread of COVID. After all, we have the toughest control measures in the UK, but have the highest infection and death rates. We have...
Gareth Davies: Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd, and thank you for the statement this evening, Minister. I just want to declare an interest as I'm a Denbighshire county councillor and I'm going to mention local authorities. So, currently social care is run and operated by our 22 local authorities in Wales. What is the impetus for decarbonising the social care sector when not every council has declared a climate...
Gareth Davies: Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd. Good afternoon, Deputy Minister. Deputy Minister, we have a crisis in social care, don't we, and I think that's a fact—a crisis brought about by a lack of staff. We are simply unable to recruit sufficient numbers of people to work in the care sector, because quite frankly the pay and conditions aren't attractive. Deputy Minister, you know my views on care...
Gareth Davies: Thank you very much for that answer, Deputy Minister. Any delay in improving the pay and conditions of staff will continue to have an impact on recruitment. This impact is being felt by our NHS and local health boards, which are rightly taking notice and taking action. Some health boards are now looking to directly employ care staff. However, rather than helping to address the problem, the...
Gareth Davies: Thank you again, Deputy Minister, for that answer. Just to change tack slightly, and expand a bit more on the integration of health and social care, of course, the best way to address these issues would be to complete the integration of health and care. The creation of a chief social care officer for Wales was supposed to accelerate the integration efforts, as you mentioned in the health...
Gareth Davies: I'm not going to rehash many of the points that have already been made about the sheer scale of the crisis that's facing us. My constituents are already living with the consequences of excessive carbon emissions—1-in-100 or even 1-in-1,000-year floods now happen every few years. Extreme weather events are now not so rare; they have become almost an annual event. The residents of Trefnant...
Gareth Davies: 8. Will the First Minister outline how his attendance at COP26 will benefit residents in the Vale of Clwyd? OQ57171
Gareth Davies: Thank you very much, First Minister, for that reply. My constituents, particularly those ones living on the coast in Rhyl and Prestatyn, are highly susceptible to flooding from rising sea levels. According to the International Energy Agency, commitments made at COP26 will still result in a 1.8 per cent rise in global temperatures. This is terrible news for coastal regions and those living...
Gareth Davies: Good afternoon, Trefnydd. I would like to call for a statement from the Minister for health regarding fair pay for NHS staff, as I've been contacted by a number of constituents, given that Ysbyty Glan Clwyd is a major employer in the Vale of Clwyd, as is Wrexham Maelor Hospital in your own constituency. And they've raised concerns about the announced 3 per cent pay increase for NHS staff and...
Gareth Davies: The fact that we're having this debate today is proof, if ever proof was needed, that this Labour Welsh Government is out of ideas, out of its depth and out of its mind. Here we are, sitting here six months on from the Senedd elections and I can count the number of Welsh Government debates on my fingers. Are we debating the big issues facing Wales and how are we going to solve them? No. Here...
Gareth Davies: 3. How will the twenty-first century schools programme benefit pupils in the Vale of Clwyd? OQ57141
Gareth Davies: I'm very grateful for that response, Minister. However, the benefit of the twenty-first century schools programme is very much dependent on where you live—a postcode lottery, essentially. Pupils in Rhyl have benefited from the building of two excellent, modern schools, in Rhyl High School and the Christ the Word Catholic School, both in the same town, whereas the neighbouring town of...
Gareth Davies: It's an absolute pleasure to take part in this important and pertinent debate this afternoon. I'm pleased that the issue of spiking has finally gained mainstream media attention because the scourge has existed for many years, but thankfully there has been an increase in awareness in recent months. I'm therefore grateful to my colleague and party for tabling this debate today, but I do however...
Gareth Davies: Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd, and good afternoon, First Minister. First Minister, your Government says it aims to pay those working in social care the real living wage. While there is still no clarity as to when this will happen, there is no doubt that it's much needed. As we've just discussed, the Living Wage Foundation increased the living wage and it now stands at £9.90 per hour. But this...
Gareth Davies: Thank you very much for your statement, this afternoon, Deputy Minister. It was really good to see you up in Glasgow last week for COP26, and I believe you met my counterpart in Westminster, Dr James Davies, so that was really nice to see.
Gareth Davies: Don't be so negative. [Laughter.] While I don't share the opinion expressed by some that COP26 was a cop out, I do fear that the watering down of the pledges will see my constituents indeed facing a watery future. As some of the world's worst polluters continue their reliance on coal, we will experience rising temperatures and rising sea levels. Deputy Minister, you've made it clear that you...
