Andrew RT Davies: Thank you, Presiding Officer. It's a pleasure to sum up this debate today and follow on from the Minister. I did offer the Minister the opportunity to point to a country that isn't receiving the same price pressures that we are in the United Kingdom, and I'd also offer the regional Member for North Wales the opportunity, as well, to make an intervention on me to give that opportunity to look...
Andrew RT Davies: There's a natural abundance of food in Costa Rica, but the people in Costa Rica are also struggling under the cost pressures of importing food, and that's why we bring debates to the floor of the Senedd today, because we need greater food security. It is a fact that what's happened to this country over the last 30 years—and by 'this country' I'm talking of Wales and the United Kingdom—is...
Andrew RT Davies: No, I'm happy to take the intervention. [Interruption.] Stand up.
Andrew RT Davies: Stand up. If the Deputy Minister—
Andrew RT Davies: Go on.
Andrew RT Davies: I stand by what the Chancellor delivered today for the people of Wales and the people of this country, as the Minister tried to highlight, which was a 5p cut in fuel duty, not for one month, not for two months, not for three months, but for 12 months. For 12 months. That's not just people with cars, as the Minister tried to indicate, that's for the people who haul our food, our freight,...
Andrew RT Davies: As a man used to say in Dad's Army, 'They don't like it up 'em'. [Laughter.] That's the long and the short of this Government, because what was delivered today in the spring statement was a solution to the cost-of-living crisis. What we heard from the Minister was nothing to deal with the food security issues that we're facing because of the Ukrainian crisis. That is a simple fact. Ukraine...
Andrew RT Davies: As the opener, Sam Kurtz, touched on when he was opening this debate—. He talked of the cost pressures within the industry, he talked of the interdependency of the industry, from primary producers, farmers, to the processors and the retailers. That's why such an important part of the motion that's before the Senedd today is about pulling together that whole chain to discuss what is needed...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you, Presiding Officer. What I recall as being a paltry rise was the 75p a week that Labour voted through and Members of Parliament voted for back in the early 2000s when Gordon Brown was the Chancellor of the Exchequer. But I'd like to ask the First Minister about something that he is responsible for and his Government is responsible for, and that is ambulance response times here in...
Andrew RT Davies: First Minister, it's been 18 months since the targets have been hit by the ambulance service. Time and time again, I've raised it with you, Members across the political divide have raised issues—heart-wrenching issues—of their experiences across the whole of Wales, where regrettably ambulances haven't been able to respond to life-threatening situations. We know the ambulance service has...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you for that answer, First Minister. As we heard last week in media reports, ambulance workers are telling us that, really, it is a soul-destroying job that they're facing at the moment, and many, sadly, are having to revert to anti-depressants to get them through the day. From covert recordings, we heard that, actually, from a management level, where genuine concerns are being raised,...
Andrew RT Davies: Do you think, given the images we are seeing time and time again on the television, executed in the name of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, that it's beneath the Member to compare the actions of the UK Government to that dictator? I would ask you to consider those comments that you've just made.
Andrew RT Davies: 6. Will the Minister make a statement on the merger of Evenlode Primary School and Bute Cottage Nursery School in Penarth? OQ57893
Andrew RT Davies: What consideration has the Minister given to requests to call in the planning application for a business park at Model Farm in the Vale of Glamorgan?
Andrew RT Davies: Minister, as part of, obviously, the proposals is a consultation exercise, undertaken by—and I declare an interest as a member of the local authority, the Vale of Glamorgan Council—the council. In this particular case, 238 responses came in to that consultation. Over 70 per cent of those responses were supporting the current status quo and not to change the current dynamic of the two...
Andrew RT Davies: Back in the autumn when I was taken ill, I spent 22 hours in an A&E department, and I know the pressure full well that staff feel, but also the hopelessness that patients feel as well. I'd be most grateful to understand from the Minister the staffing ratios in the A&E department at the Grange, and if she hasn't got that information, could she provide that in a letter form that could be placed...
Andrew RT Davies: As someone who represents the Cardiff and Vale health board area, they have been lamentable in commissioning services in the community through pharmacists. Would you agree that there needs to be greater orientation around the contract so that more services can be contracted to pharmacies, especially in the public health agenda? Because if I look further west, I can find those services in...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Dare I stray into local government issues, First Minister, especially as there's something happening next Thursday? But I will ask you the question about the agricultural Bill. This is a Bill that has not seen the light of day yet. We were promised it in the spring of this year; we even got promised it in initial form before the last Senedd elections. The...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you for that explanation, First Minister, because when I questioned the Minister around the food crisis that I see evolving now the Ukraine situation is escalating and the damage it is doing to the supply of food on to the market, the Minister said that there was no crisis and that there was no need to bring the processors, the food producers and the retailers together in the very...
Andrew RT Davies: First Minister, there is a crisis. Fertiliser, which you need to grow crops, is now £900 to £1,000 a tonne; it is normally about £300 to £350 a tonne. Wheat, the key component of making bread, is north of £300 a tonne; it normally trades at £140 to £150 a tonne. Beef is at £440 a kilo; it normally trades at £340 to £360. I could go on; I like to think I've got my hand on the pulse...
