Llyr Gruffydd: We've heard this before.
Llyr Gruffydd: Well, it's not working. [Inaudible.]—is not working. [Inaudible.]—10 years. [Inaudible.]
Llyr Gruffydd: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you for the opportunity to discuss the content of the Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee's report on the marine policies of the Welsh Government, because, early in this Senedd term, the committee agreed that marine policies should be a priority area for us in our work over the next few years. The intention was...
Llyr Gruffydd: A second focus for the committee was the progress of the marine renewable energy sector. I should say here that we welcome the efforts of Ministers, through the deep dive into renewable energy, to remove some of the barriers to development. Members will have heard the Minister for Economy’s statement yesterday on progress in this area, and there is much to be welcomed, but the Minister’s...
Llyr Gruffydd: That leads seamlessly on to the next part of my contribution. You are right; it isn't a binary choice of one or the other, but it's making sure that we have the frameworks and the strategies and the policies in place to make sure that these developments, which all of us, frankly, want to happen, and indeed need to happen in terms of the challenges that we face in relation to climate change,...
Llyr Gruffydd: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I won't repeat the points that have been made, just thank the Minister and everybody else for their contributions. I think the nature of the discussion reflects how broad are the areas that this short inquiry tried to address and, clearly, how broad is the work that needs to be done by us as a committee, and the Government, of course, in that...
Llyr Gruffydd: On bottom trawling, again, a number of Members raised that, and I think it is something that we've been grappling with for a long, long time, and we would all wish to be further ahead than we are at the moment. I'm glad to hear that the Minister's pledging to change gear on towed gear and bottom trawling, so let's move as swiftly as we can on that. Joyce Watson is absolutely right: five years...
Llyr Gruffydd: Yes. And lay off the salmon. Good, good. And I think the point on spatial planning is important—terrestrial spatial planning, and then we have marine spatial planning. Well, surely there shouldn't be a disconnect either. We need that seamless spatial planning for terrestrial and marine, as far as I'm concerned. Using the work that we're now seeing accelerate in terms of developing renewable...
Llyr Gruffydd: 3. Will the Minister outline how the Welsh Government and the UK Government are working in tandem on delivering levelling-up funding? OQ58098
Llyr Gruffydd: 1. What plans does the Welsh Government have to protect the future of council-owned farms? OQ58099
Llyr Gruffydd: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. Minister, you will recall, I know, in 2020, Audit Wales found that a third of town and community councils in Wales had their accounts qualified—deemed unacceptable, of course—and in the 2017 local elections over two thirds of seats for town and community councillors went uncontested; 80 per cent of wards didn't actually have an election. Now, we await an analysis...
Llyr Gruffydd: We do, indeed, but you're right to say there's huge disparity, isn't there, not only in terms of performance and ambition, but certainly in terms of the coverage to start with, where some areas have a town and community council, others don't. I think about nearly 30 per cent of the population of Wales don't even have a town and community council. Some are very large—Barry Town Council, for...
Llyr Gruffydd: Well, thank you very much for your response. It's a reflection of the situation. But, of course, the situation is disappointing, isn't it? Because, back in 2019, Wales was a net beneficiary of funding from the European Union, receiving hundreds of millions of pounds every year, and that drove economic programmes and also attracted match funding from private and public sources. But, as you've...
Llyr Gruffydd: I don't like the way you've brushed that aside, saying that it's only 1 per cent and a matter for local authorities. I think you do have an important strategic role as a Government here, because we know that financial pressures are going to cast a shadow over the future of many of these council-owned farms, and the number of farms has reduced over the years. I do think it's time now for the...
Llyr Gruffydd: Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd. Can I thank everybody for their—well, most Members for their contributions and their constructive contributions to this debate? I think Luke Fletcher struck the right note right at the start. This levelling up is actually a top-down agenda in reality, and I'd go further. What kind of agenda? Well, we're seeing constituencies and authorities being cherry-picked...
Llyr Gruffydd: No, I've finished, actually. [Laughter.]
Llyr Gruffydd: Well, if we need any proof, this statement, in my view, shows that the Welsh Government is going round and round in circles on Betsi Cadwaladr. You're tinkering with the symptoms rather than fundamentally tackling the illness that is stifling services in north Wales.
Llyr Gruffydd: How many times have we been here before on Betsi Cadwaladr, Minister? How many times do we have to come here, and, quite frankly, listen to your cut-and-paste statements about more targeted interventions, more new directors, more tripartite meetings? You're like a broken record. It's a statement that you and your predecessors have made in various forms time after time, month after month, for...
Llyr Gruffydd: I wasn't going to start with this, but I have to say that I'm saddened and quite sickened by some of the fake anger that I'm hearing from some contributors to this debate, where they berate increasing the size of the Senedd and the cost that comes with that. Those very same politicians don't bat an eyelid when the British Prime Minister wholesomely swells the ranks of the House of Lords. No...
Llyr Gruffydd: No, I won't, sorry, because people have had their opportunity to contribute. They're unelected and, of course, many of them are appointed against the recommendation and advice of the appointments commissioner. Well, who was on about jobs for the boys five minutes ago? Who's been on about backroom deals and dark corridors? And when it comes to cost, we know that the House of Lords costs...
