Mabon ap Gwynfor: I thank the Minister for that response. So, according to the Minister, there have been great benefits for communities in Wales, and you want to continue with this. How, therefore, does the Minister explain that almost half of the successful applications under the woodland creation scheme in window No. 10 had gone to applicants with addresses outwith Wales? According to an answer to a written...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: May I ask for an urgent statement from the Deputy Minister for transport on an announcement made last week by the Llew Jones bus company, which is going to bring to an end the T19 service from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Llandudno in a fortnight on 11 February? The T19 service was launched 18 months ago, to replace the X19. Many people in the Ffestiniog area use it for medical appointments,...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: I'd like to raise two points and ask two questions, if I may. In order to achieve our goals and reach our targets, clearly we need large-scale projects, but we can all play a part as well, and smaller-scale projects cumulatively will play a significant part. In England, small roof-mounted wind turbines are allowed under permitted development. However, permitted development rights do not apply...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Thank you to the Minister for the statement—there's a great deal to digest there. It is concerning, of course, to see the decline in Gwynedd, for example. At this point, I have to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the excellent work of Gwynedd Council over a period of decades in ensuring that almost all children going through the education system there are fluent in Welsh. But how,...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Thank you for your contribution this afternoon; it's to be warmly welcomed. It shows Wales's aspiration to be a nation of sanctuary, and these regulations are an important step in that direction. As the Minister will know, the Local Government and Housing Committee is holding a consultation on Ukrainian refugees coming to Wales to escape the crimes of Putin at the moment. The evidence has...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: I want to take the opportunity to congratulate O Ddrws i Ddrws, a community transport charity on the Llŷn peninsula, for providing 20 years of service to residents in the area. O Ddrws i Ddrws was incorporated in 2003, and since then it has carried hundreds of passengers on thousands of necessary journeys, from medical appointments, shopping locally or visiting loved ones, to getting to...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: I was out on the ambulance service picket lines last Monday and Thursday, speaking to Unite members and discussing their experiences, and asked them why they decided to take industrial action. And the conversations with Fiona, Ludwig, Catrin, Robin and the others were very valuable indeed. Their answers were striking, and everyone said the same thing. Salary and recent inflation was part of...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Is the Counsel General content that the Trade in Animals and Related Products (Amendment and Legislative Functions) and Animal Health (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) (EU Exit) Regulations 2022 are enforceable?
Mabon ap Gwynfor: What assessment has the Counsel General made of the impact the UK Parliament's decision to block the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill will have on devolution in Wales?
Mabon ap Gwynfor: 6. Will the Minister provide an update on the Snowdonia Aerospace Centre in Llanbedr? OQ59050
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Thank you very much for that response. The Government, of course, has invested millions in developing the Snowdonia aerospace centre in Llanbedr, and the Government has great ambitions for developing Wales as a leader in space technology. But experts in the area and the tenants on the site say that delivering these ambitions will be impossible without improvement to infrastructure to reach...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Thank you to the Minister for her statement. It's a long-awaited statement, and whilst there is much to be welcomed, I'm sorry to say that I'm also disappointed. If I could start with BVD. BVD, as we've heard, is one of the greatest challenges facing the cattle sector in Wales, and indeed, across the UK. There are far too many of our cattle suffering this terrible disease, and it leads to...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Well, this Senedd should not support this LCM in any way. Supporting this LCM would be a complete betrayal of Welsh farmers, and would leave our agricultural sector vulnerable to the risk of being undermined completely by red meat producers on the other side of the world. The Government has several progressive policies, such as ambitious environmental targets and local procurement policies,...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'd like to ask for two statements, please. Firstly, can I ask for an update from the Government regarding the uplift in funding for care workers, please? In December 2021, I think it was, the Government announced funding to ensure that care workers received the real living wage, which was due to be paid to the care workers from April 2022. My understanding is that the...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Now, I understand that it's impossible to draft a budget that pleases everybody, especially in the current climate. A budget is a reflection of your politics, and politics, after all, is about priorities. And I'd like to speak to one of those priorities that is often espoused—that of tackling homelessness. Homelessness is a scourge and nobody in an advanced and fair country should be left...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Yes, go for it, Janet.
Mabon ap Gwynfor: There's no evidence at all to suggest that the new regulations are contributing to section 21, but I'm here to talk about homeless people, not to defend the landlords. So, there's evidence to show that the housing support grant, the services delivered by the funding for the HSG, provides a net saving of £1.40 for every £1 invested by preventing homelessness. The housing support grant...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: The journey to bring us to this part of the journey has been long and, at times, rather tempestuous. From the second that the statement was made that the United Kingdom was to leave the European Union, it was clear that a significant challenge faced the agricultural sector. Now, the journey began with a misstep, as the Government published 'Brexit and our land'. But, from the ashes of that...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: Thank you, Llywydd. I want to start by acknowledging that there's a great deal of work going on at the moment with public transport services in Wales. The recent report by the North Wales Transport Commission was very interesting, for example, with one particular interesting statistic, which stated that two-thirds of the journeys of people in north Wales were 15 km or less, but that data was...
Mabon ap Gwynfor: I thank the Deputy Minister for that response and the warm words in supporting provision in rural areas, but further to that, it's been brought to my attention that the bus emergency scheme that was introduced during COVID is to be redirected to meet other requirements within Government, and that this funding will come to an end very suddenly indeed. A number of bus providers have contacted...
