Leanne Wood: So, it's not Nigel Farage then?
Leanne Wood: Yes, he is.
Leanne Wood: Last weekend, I spent the evening in Swansea with a group of volunteers who go out every Sunday evening with food, toiletries, warm clothing et cetera for homeless people. Some of the people I spoke to had absolutely nothing, and they were very grateful for the food and the provisions, and they shared with us some of their experiences. I heard from a number of people how they or their friends...
Leanne Wood: 2. How is the Welsh Government ensuring that schools are able to provide a suitable education for all? OAQ54178
Leanne Wood: In recent weeks and months, I've been contacted by many people in the Rhondda, who are concerned about the support, or lack of support, for their child on the autism spectrum. I've discovered that parents are being told, when they've requested a statutory assessment for a statement of special educational needs, that the local authority no longer does statements. This is wrong, and, until...
Leanne Wood: Plaid Cymru was pleased when your Labour Government performed a U-turn last year on your ill-judged decision to scrap the school uniform grant. The replacement pupil development grant now entitles parents with children with eligibility for free school meals to apply for the grant when their children are in reception years, year 3, year 7 and year 10. I'm not surprised to hear you say that the...
Leanne Wood: I have two important health matters I'd like to raise with you this afternoon. Last month, I raised my concerns that the Government had yet to open its promised gender clinic. It was expected in April of this year, following the budget agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Labour Government, and I was pleased to see the long-overdue announcement yesterday that the Welsh gender service will...
Leanne Wood: We in Plaid Cymru welcome the recommendations of the affordable housing review, and there is considerable overlap with their proposals and our proposals, which we published back in February this year. So, we're pleased to see that the Government is accepting the recommendations as well. We are particularly pleased with the recommendations that more attention should be given to the...
Leanne Wood: How is the Welsh Government ensuring job opportunities are created in the Rhondda?
Leanne Wood: I'd like to pay tribute to one of the Rhondda's most famous sons, the actor Glyn Houston, who was born and raised just behind my grandmother's house in Tonypandy. When he was a child, his parents moved to London to find work and escape the crushing poverty and unemployment of the Rhondda. His parents couldn't afford to take all three children, and Glyn was left behind to be raised by his...
Leanne Wood: Thank you, Glyn, for those lessons. Rest in peace.
Leanne Wood: Will you take an intervention?
Leanne Wood: Diolch yn fawr. I agree with you entirely that the case is really totally compelling now. So, therefore, why do you want to wait another five years before you change it?
Leanne Wood: You sound like Tony Blair.
Leanne Wood: In the Rhondda, where we have a stubborn problem with underemployment as well as unemployment, there is a newly formed co-operative of highly skilled garment workers, formerly employed by Burberry, who hope to do something about that. This group were led to believe that Welsh Government money would be available to them for capital investment so that they could set up and, as a first order,...
Leanne Wood: Diolch, Llywydd. Last week, you accepted in principle the recommendation that all new affordable homes should be as close as possible to zero carbon by 2021, subject to the outcome of your building regulations review. However, the homes likely to be completed and available in 2021 are those homes that form part of the applications going through the planning process at the moment. Will you...
Leanne Wood: A climate emergency means that decisions being taken now have to be consistent with the aspirations for a zero-carbon economy; it's not good enough to just keep delaying things, Minister. But moving to the issue of planning, you'll be aware that my colleague wrote to you recently asking to adjust planning policy to reflect the fact that, when considering the issue of the M4, the First...
Leanne Wood: I'd like to look even further now beyond 2021, Minister. It's clear that some of the technology that's going to be used in housing will effectively turn some houses into mini power stations, capable of generating the electricity that those communities will use, and even, in some cases, make those houses profitable. This, of course, is really exciting, but there's a risk that if we don't...
Leanne Wood: Will you take an intervention?
Leanne Wood: It's estimated that around 1 in 7 people, more than 15 per cent of the population of the UK, are neurodivergent, which means that the brain functions, learns and processes information differently. Different people experience neurodiversity differently. It's therefore important that people are not stereotyped according to the better-known characteristics. Not all autistic people, for example,...
