Huw Irranca-Davies: Could I, through the Deputy Minister, suggest to colleagues on Conservative benches here that it is not too late to put pressure on the UK Government to invest in marine and tidal technology in Wales, including lagoon technology? It was a terrible, terrible day for Wales when Charles Hendry, who I have a lot of respect for, said it was a no-brainer to invest in the tidal lagoon in Swansea....
Huw Irranca-Davies: I'm very pleased to rise and speak briefly in this debate, and also to thank the committee for their work and for continuing their attention on this really critical area of social policy, because it's undoubtedly the case—it almost goes without saying, but I'm darn well going to say it—if we get the investment right in the early years provision, in a coherent, unified system of early...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Could I make a short intervention?
Huw Irranca-Davies: A very short intervention. It's simply to say that all the international experience shows that from age appropriate—. From a very young age, from that nine months and onwards, what you need is that unified approach that actually brings the early years education and childcare together. That includes play, but that unified approach is critical to success and outcomes.
Huw Irranca-Davies: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, and I will keep my question very brief indeed. First of all, I do welcome the plan, because it does give hope, particularly with the targets, but those now have to be not only achievable but delivered as well. Because a lot of us who believe strongly to our dying day in the NHS know that we've got to give confidence back that the system isn't broken. It's bowed, but we...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Diolch, Llywydd. We considered the memorandum at our meeting of 28 March and we reported on the memorandum yesterday. We don't turn to the issues of a policy; that's been ably done by my fellow Chair Jenny Rathbone and her committee, but I agree with the observations there: who would object to this? We don't make any recommendations in our report, but we make a few observations. One of...
Huw Irranca-Davies: We have produced three reports covering the four consent memoranda that have been laid by the Minister on this Bill. Given that it was only at the beginning of the Easter recess that memorandum No. 4 was laid, our third report was laid just yesterday afternoon, immediately after we had considered the memorandum at our first meeting of the new term.
Huw Irranca-Davies: And I welcome the comments of my fellow Chair there on the issue of using this approach of LCMs for making legislation. Llywydd, I'll state for the record that our latest report should be read in conjunction with our earlier reports, some of which touch on these very matters. In our latest report laid yesterday on memorandum No. 4, we have noted the position of the Minister with regard to the...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you, Llywydd. I welcome this opportunity to participate in this debate on the general principles of the Welsh Government's second Bill of the sixth Senedd. Our report came to four conclusions and we made 18 recommendations.
Huw Irranca-Davies: I'd like, in my opening remarks, to thank my committee members and the clerking team for the attention that they've put to this particular Bill. But I'd also like to thank the Minister for arranging a meeting with me and with the Chair of the Finance Committee last Friday to discuss our respective reports. We thought that was helpful and constructive, and I very much welcome, again, the...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Minister, everything you've said today in your statement reflects the experiences now of host families in my constituency. Some of these are—. They're just incredible families. They are living in terraced houses in my constituency, have not a great deal of means themselves, but have opened their homes to families from Ukraine, that they want to actually bring here right now. They are having...
Huw Irranca-Davies: I wonder if the Counsel General will give way on that very point. One of the basic principles that even an A-level student will learn about human rights is that they are universal—they're non-negotiable, they are universal, apply to everyone. How then does he interpret the UK Government's signal, rejecting, as he rightly says, what they heard in the consultation, that there should be some...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Would the Counsel General give way on that point?
Huw Irranca-Davies: It's simply to say I equally welcome the intervention there. Indeed, Darren has long championed that. If the Welsh Government does proceed in that way, and in the tone of the intervention from Darren, that makes it quite interesting, because we could end up with cross-party support for embedding the human rights principles in our own legislation here in Wales, and that is a good moment for...
Huw Irranca-Davies: [Inaudible.]—withdraw the amendment. [Laughter.]
Huw Irranca-Davies: It's a great pleasure to follow Sioned.
Huw Irranca-Davies: Sioned chaired that group this morning, the cross-party group on human rights. It was fascinating, actually, listening to the discussion. And the points that I want to make—normally I'm restrained a little bit, Llywydd, in making these points, because normally I stand as the Chair of the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee, and I'm very dry, and so on. I'm going to try and be...
Huw Irranca-Davies: I will indeed, Darren.
Huw Irranca-Davies: Well, because it's not only me saying them, Darren. In fact, it's not me—if it was me, I'd dismiss it entirely out of hand; I'm just the Member of Senedd for Ogmore. But, actually, the Equality and Human Rights Commission itself have looked at it, and they haven't said complete opposition, but what they have said is—and this is a quote from them; you've had this as well—there is no...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you, Minister, for giving way to a brief intervention. There was a time, and I alluded to this previously, in the aftermath of the second world war, when there was a strong cross-party consensus on not just the importance of human rights, but particularly in terms of refugees. And you now have the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees saying that transferring 'refugees and...
