Darren Millar: Can I thank the Minister for an advance copy of his statement? As you’ll know, we on these benches have been calling for you to bring forward your net-zero skills strategy for many months, so we’re finally glad that it has been published. Because you're quite right: we have a huge job to do if we’re to get to net zero by 2050, and we have many skills that our workforce needs to be able...
Darren Millar: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I listened very carefully to your statement, Minister, and I didn't hear an apology to the people of north Wales for the failure of this Welsh Government to sort out the deep-seated problems in our health board in the region, that have been ongoing, not just since 2015 when the Welsh Government first put Betsi Cadwaladr into special measures, but for a...
Darren Millar: 'We found clear and deep-seated fractures within the Executive Team', 'we have significant doubt as to whether working relationships'— this is within the executive team—'are reparable'. There are 'significant problems with working relationships within the Executive Team'. 'The evidence presented to us points to dysfunctionality and factions within the team'. It's within the executive team...
Darren Millar: Because that will be a third report pointing to problems in that executive team. Can I ask one final question—
Darren Millar: —if I may, Deputy Presiding Officer? Lots of these executives have a close working relationship with people, understandably, in your Government department, including, of course, the chief executive of NHS Wales. I want to know what the chief executive of NHS Wales actually does to hold those individuals responsible. Because if she's the chief executive of NHS Wales, you'd expect her to be...
Darren Millar: You sacked them for doing that.
Darren Millar: Diolch, Llywydd. Minister, will you provide a statement on the budget for the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales?
Darren Millar: Can I welcome you back from your recent mission to Ukraine, which we were all cheering you on with, along with Alun Davies, our other Senedd colleague, and wish you a very happy St David's Day? I appreciate the response that you've given, and we have crossed swords on this issue of the budget on a number of occasions in the past. But we know that one of the things that you have asked the...
Darren Millar: Well, I always reflect on my comments, but I can't, still, understand why on earth, given that the commission is supposed to complete its work in the current calendar year, you have allocated expenditure that takes it through to March 2025. You still haven't answered that principal question. Why is a commission, which is due to be finished, having in your budget line—in the Welsh...
Darren Millar: Will you take an intervention?
Darren Millar: Is that okay, Deputy Presiding Officer?
Darren Millar: You talk very passionately about independence, as, of course, all members of Plaid Cymru do, but do you accept that the fiscal gap means that you'd either have to raise taxes significantly or cut public spending significantly, which would have an enormously damaging impact on Wales and its people?
Darren Millar: 8. What action is the Welsh Government taking to improve access to NHS dentistry in Clwyd West? OQ59250
Darren Millar: I appreciate that answer. I know there's a statement on this matter later on, but 16 years ago when I first became a Member of the Senedd, people were able to access two NHS check-ups a year, and most people in my constituency were able top register with a local NHS dentist without any issues. Sixteen years on, NHS dentistry, particularly in north Wales, appears to be falling off a cliff. I...
Darren Millar: Can I ask you, Trefnydd, for a statement from yourself in your capacity as rural affairs Minister in relation to squirrelpox? There are huge problems with squirrelpox; it's affecting many red squirrels, our native squirrels, in Scotland, and I'm very concerned that we must do everything we can in order to prevent outbreaks here. There was an outbreak, of course, on Ynys Môn just a few years...
Darren Millar: Minister, can I call for two statements from the Government, please, this week? The first is on standards of stroke care in Wales. The Stroke Association recently circulated information that showed that the latest sentinel stroke national audit programme identified that stroke services in Wales have been deteriorating, and in fact, in north Wales were worse than in any other part of the...
Darren Millar: 7. Will the Minister make a statement on council tax rises in north Wales? OQ59306
Darren Millar: Thank you for that response, Minister. I recognise that local authority members themselves are responsible for setting council tax, but as you will know, in Conwy, local residents there are facing an eye-watering increase in their council tax bills of 9.9 per cent this year, which is the largest increase in Wales, and one of the largest in the whole of England and Wales. Such an increase...
Darren Millar: Diolch, Llywydd. As the Minister for north Wales, can you tell us how the Welsh Government is ensuring that people across the north Wales region will benefit from the additional funding that was announced in the Chancellor’s budget for growth last week?
Darren Millar: Well, I’m afraid that answer didn’t give me a great deal of hope, Minister. As you know, this is £180 million-worth extra that is coming to Wales, and this is on top of—this is on top of—£600 million that was announced in the autumn statement last year. So, that’s £780 million, £0.75 billion extra, that you have to spend in the financial year 2023-24. And we have a situation...
