Cefin Campbell: Plaid Cymru believes that all public procurement of food should prioritise the purchase of food produced in Wales. The provision of free school meals for primary children, with an emphasis on developing local supply chains, will support local farmers and growers, and local businesses. With a threat to the farming sector created by trade deals with countries like Australia, and the increased...
Cefin Campbell: I will conclude with this, Llywydd: expanding free school meals also gives us an opportunity to secure healthier foods for our children and to increase horticulture here in Wales. To conclude, therefore, free school meals for primary children would not only lead to better healthy eating patterns, reduce obesity, improve the ability to concentrate in the classroom and reduce the stigma...
Cefin Campbell: Thank you very much, Llywydd. Having raised with you at the end of the last parliamentary term the need to safeguard the bluefin tuna, I was very pleased to hear back from you, and I quote, saying:
Cefin Campbell: 'I am finalising details for a scientific tuna catch and release tagging pilot project in Wales in 2021.'
Cefin Campbell: Since then, I haven't heard or seen many of the details or dates from you, and the tuna fishing season has started since August. So, I would warmly welcome more details on these proposals. But there is a real need to take broader action on fisheries and aquaculture in Wales more generally. Having met, around a fortnight ago, with representatives of the Welsh Fishermen's Association, it's...
Cefin Campbell: Thank you very much. I look forward to some sort of internal review on that and a strategy to develop the sector for the future. Another issue I raised with the Minister prior to recess was the issue of purchasing farmland by major corporations for tree planting, and most of these companies are from outwith Wales, and that land is then used for tree planting rather than food production....
Cefin Campbell: Thank you very much. I accept that that's a difficult balance to strike, but there is an opportunity for the Government to work with farmers in order to highlight the benefits that exist in planting trees. And of course, if the situation in terms of planting trees on farmland gets worse, then it will mean that there is less land available for food production in a sustainable manner. A recent...
Cefin Campbell: Trefnydd, will the finance Minister make a statement updating Members on what steps the Welsh Government is taking to get to grips with the concerns of those businesses that failed to access financial support, adequate support indeed, during the pandemic, and that are now facing difficulties, particularly those that have fallen between the cracks? One of those businesses is a shop owner in...
Cefin Campbell: Well, Plaid Cymru also welcomes this statement and the opportunity to discuss and scrutinise the proposals for the reform of farming in Wales, which will have the greatest long-term impact on the agricultural sector for a generation. Plaid Cymru, of course, welcomes the schemes that provide economic stability and also sustainability in terms of the environment for farmers. But without...
Cefin Campbell: As the statement notes, the commitment to full funding of the BPS through to December 2023 is subject to UK Government funding. Let's not forget that the UK Government have let us down before, having cut nearly £130 million in agricultural funding last year. So, in the context of that cut and that uncertainty, has the Minister held any preliminary discussions with Ministers or officials at...
Cefin Campbell: I'd like to thank Jenny Rathbone for giving me a minute of her time to make a contribution, and I agree entirely with her that we need to emphasise far more the benefits of eating good-quality foods and the positive impact of that not only physically but also mentally. But I just want to introduce one slightly different aspect to this, beyond the benefits in terms of nutrition, and that is...
Cefin Campbell: And this is exactly the issue we have around our extractive economy. Research shows that 51 per cent of Welsh milk is processed beyond our borders, and a review of the beef sector in Wales found that 72 per cent of Welsh cattle were slaughtered outside Wales. To fix this, we need to localise supply chains, so we need ambitious targets for local procurement. Just imagine the joint economic and...
Cefin Campbell: My question follows a similar route to the question posed by Paul Davies. At a time when only 48 per cent of red calls are answered within eight minutes rather than the target of 65 per cent across the Hywel Dda area, the ambulance trust intends to cut the number of ambulances from three to two in Aberystwyth and from three to two in Cardigan too, and to do this without informing the public...
Cefin Campbell: 6. What guidance does the Welsh Government provide to companies that use Welsh land for carbon offsetting purposes? OQ56962
Cefin Campbell: Thank you very much, Minister. It's true to say that there is general support for the Welsh Government's aim of seeing Wales become a carbon-neutral nation by 2050, but it's clear that there are problems in the carbon market at the moment, particularly in terms of how this impacts our agricultural land. In a series of responses to written questions from me, the Government has now confirmed...
Cefin Campbell: Perhaps I should begin by declaring an interest: my wife was a nurse throughout her life until she had to retire recently, and many of the nurses who worked with her continue to be close friends to us as a family. And, as a result of that, I have seen, I have been an eyewitness to, the impact of the pandemic on them as nurses over the past 18 months. On a personal level, I've seen the strain...
Cefin Campbell: Dirprwy Lywydd, I spoke last night to a senior nursing sister, who has given nearly 40 years of her life to the NHS. She told me very movingly that never during her long career has she felt so low, so burnt out and so undervalued. She was telling me how, during the early days of the pandemic as a community nurse, she and her colleagues visited patients without adequate personal protective...
Cefin Campbell: I'm coming to the end. And when we clapped, as we heard earlier on, they were given hope that, at last, Governments would give them a decent wage in recognition of the challenging tasks they carry out day in, day out. But, unfortunately, that has turned into dismay. For them, the thunderous clapping on our doorsteps has become a distant echo as despair and disillusionment has returned in...
Cefin Campbell: So—and I finish with this—things don't have to be this way. One decision by the Government to give that wage that they deserve would change the situation entirely and would give them their dues. Thank you very much.
Cefin Campbell: Thank you very much, Llywydd. The Minister will be aware that this is Wool Week, and last year, my fellow Member Llyr Gruffydd raised concerns with you about the state of the wool market in Wales. As a result of the pandemic, the decline in the wool market meant that farmers were paying around £1 to shear a sheep and only getting 19p or 20p back for every roll of wool. Now, thank goodness,...
