Andrew RT Davies: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Leader of the house, many of us would’ve seen in the media over the last week the shocking images of drug abuse, with people comatose in public places, and one can only feel a huge amount of sympathy for the individuals who have fallen so low as to be in that position, and equally want to make sure that as many safeguards as possible are put in place to try and...
Andrew RT Davies: I had hoped that, with the time that’s lapsed since this initial story ran some 10 days ago, we might have got a fuller answer from the leader of the house, given the points that I raised. Because the Welsh Government, in 2008, brought forward a strategy, ‘Working Together to Reduce Harm’, and from what we see in these types of images, that strategy, from what I can see, clearly...
Andrew RT Davies: Leader of the house, Andrew Atkinson, who is the chair of the Wrexham town centre forum steering group, has identified that everyone seems to be blaming everyone else, rather than actually getting to grips with the problem. I heard from a sedentary position on the other side, from the Welsh nationalists, that they believe that legalising drugs is a sensible alternative here. From this side of...
Andrew RT Davies: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the long-term future of the subsidised north-south air link in light of news that Citywing has gone into liquidation? EAQ(5)0142(EI)
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, and thank you for your statement that was issued yesterday clarifying some of the measures that the Welsh Government has put in place. As a user of this service, I can literally leave my front door and be in north Wales by 8.40 a.m., and coming off the Isle of Anglesey. I fully support the service if it was commercially viable, and it is disheartening now that...
Andrew RT Davies: Leader of the house, could we have a statement, please, on the St Athan aerospace park? We’ve only recently had the good news around the Aston Martin development of the Red Dragon hangar, but some years ago, obviously, Cardiff Aviation set up at the aviation park, and they’ve faced some considerable commercial challenges. Welsh Government put a considerable sum of money into Cardiff...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I formally move the motion in the name of Paul Davies on the order paper today, which took a huge amount of thought process and literacy to put together, which simply states: ‘Believes that the Welsh Labour-led Government is failing the people of Wales.’ I understand the leader of the house is responding on behalf of the Government. We will not,...
Andrew RT Davies: [Continues.]—its programme for government. I’ll gladly take the intervention.
Andrew RT Davies: Well, I question whether it does work, actually, because—. That leads me very nicely into the problems, the deep-seated problems, that the people of Wales do face. I do see the Deputy Minister for skills congratulating you on such a wonderful intervention. [Laughter.] If that passes for congratulations, why are one in seven people in Wales on a waiting list? Why is this Government failing...
Andrew RT Davies: That doesn’t account for it, Mike. What I do know is that in the figures that were given to us at the start of devolution, that gap was £32. It’s now £607. That’s happened on your watch—the Labour Party’s watch—and this Government is not giving us any confidence that it is dealing with that particular issue. When you look at teacher numbers, a vital component of any successful...
Andrew RT Davies: Sorry, Deputy Presiding Officer. I would gladly take an intervention from the Member for Ogmore so that he can correct the Record to say how many times he voted for the Labour Government to electrify rail lines in Wales when he was a Member of Parliament. I think it will show that he never voted once, whereas the Conservatives are electrifying the line between Paddington and Cardiff, and will...
Andrew RT Davies: A package of measures for green energy; £132 million has gone into high-energy companies such as Tata Steel, and more to come up to the £400 million rebate that’s been offered by the Treasury in London. That’s a lot more than you’ve done on business rates, which you haven’t tackled at all from this front bench.
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I welcome and congratulate everyone who’s contributed in the debate in their own particular way. It was noticeable from the leader of the house that she didn’t address head-on the very points that were put to her around health waiting times, around recruitment of doctors and nurses to get our health service back up to where we want it to be,...
Andrew RT Davies: Well, with respect, Jenny, we are three weeks away from the end of term. One-fifth of this Assembly term has gone away. I appreciate that you weren’t here at the start of the debate, but I made the point that, when Governments come in, they normally have energy, they have vibrancy, they blaze ideas and trail blaze ideas that people want to rally around. Sadly, this Government has just...
Andrew RT Davies: They do have this inferiority complex. They really do need to get over it. Rather than having the chip on the shoulder—[Interruption.]
Andrew RT Davies: [Inaudible.]—you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve. But this motion today, at the end of what is one fifth of this Assembly term, seeks to highlight how the Government here has failed to address those deep structural problems on the economy, on health, on education, on housing, as has been pointed out by spokespeople here today. In fact, the leader of the house introduced housing...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can I first of all wish you many happy returns, First Minister? As someone who’s got many years to go before I hit the milestone of 50, I look forward to maybe you telling me what it’s like. [Laughter.] But I wish you all the best on your birthday today, and I’d also like to send best wishes to the Cabinet Secretary for rural affairs who, obviously, is...
Andrew RT Davies: And you are confident, First Minister, with this deal, that GVA, which is about 74 per cent of the UK level in the Swansea city region, will increase over the 15 years of the deal. So, can you give us some firm indicators that you will be benchmarking, and you Government will be benchmarking, as success? What can we expect in the three, five, eight and 10 years when this deal will be coming...
Andrew RT Davies: I welcome that. I would have liked, maybe, a more definitive mark as to where you would like to see GVA over the period growing to from where it is at the moment, at 74 per cent. But it is important that Cardiff has got a city deal and that Swansea city region has got a city deal. Obviously, north Wales desperately needs the growth deal to be delivered. Yesterday in ‘The Guardian’, you...
Andrew RT Davies: Leader of the house, can we have a statement from the Cabinet Secretary for health, please, on paediatric rheumatology services in Wales? Sadly, in Wales, we do not have any paediatric rheumatology services—dedicated services—and in particular we do not have any teams to help young people who are diagnosed with arthritis at very young ages, very often at school age, and this causes a huge...
