Neil McEvoy: I'd like a statement on the position that minority-care-time parents find themselves in. I had a constituent in my office earlier today being forced to pay bedroom tax, and being put into debt as a result. He cares for his daughter on the weekends and the extra room is needed. If you look at every council across Wales, those rooms that are needed to take care of children when parents work in...
Neil McEvoy: 9. Will the First Minister make a statement on the environmental impact of local development plans? OAQ53816
Neil McEvoy: First Minister, last time you arrogantly gave no answer to my question—
Neil McEvoy: With respect, Presiding Officer, I said 'last time'—'last time'.
Neil McEvoy: Last time, First Minister, you arrogantly gave no answer to my question—
Neil McEvoy: I’d like a statement from the Welsh Government on the proposed closure of two Welsh-medium schools in Pontypridd. Labour Rhondda Cynon Taf wants to close ysgol Pont Siôn Norton and ysgol Heol-y-Celyn to build a bigger Welsh-medium school miles away—miles away—from pupils. There are children as young as three years of age who will be expected to travel up to six miles to go to school....
Neil McEvoy: I welcome Wales having some declaration on eliminating racial discrimination, based on the United Nations convention. As a developing democracy and a nation in our own right, this is a good move to make. Wales is the right place to be doing this. Cardiff, Newport and other cities here were amongst the first in Europe to embrace people from other cultures. We've all heard about Tiger Bay,...
Neil McEvoy: Yes, sure.
Neil McEvoy: I think the media has a responsibility to promote positive interaction between people of all backgrounds, of all colours and of all races. I think we need more people involved in the law—more lawyers, more judges—to implement laws that we make here. It would be great to see more people from different backgrounds in those professions. I think we need a Welsh bill of rights to protect...
Neil McEvoy: The Welsh Government is spending millions of Welsh tax pounds on the well-being of future generations commission, run by a Labour insider. The High Court—the High Court—has now stated what many of us already knew: the well-being of future generations Act is 'deliberately vague'. A senior barrister in Wales has described the Act as both 'toothless' and 'virtually useless'. The well-being...
Neil McEvoy: 6. What plans does the Welsh Government have to improve agricultural land in Wales? OAQ53928
Neil McEvoy: First Minister, Labour's local development plan is concreting and trashing acre upon acre of prime agricultural land in Cardiff West. When we first said that this was going to happen, you said that our scaremongering was 'disgraceful'—WalesOnline, there. We now have a situation where the wealthy Earl of Plymouth Estates Limited is trying to throw people off the land that they have farmed...
Neil McEvoy: I'd like a Welsh Government statement of congratulations for Jess Fishlock. She won a winner's medal in the UEFA Women's Champions League playing for Lyon against Barcelona. There are only five other footballers in Wales—she was born in Cardiff—but there are only five other footballers in Wales who have achieved such an honour at such an elite level. Speaking as a football fan, somebody...
Neil McEvoy: Will the First Minister make a statement on Welsh Government support for tenant farmers?
Neil McEvoy: Climate change is one of the biggest issues right now, and the activity throughout the world is something to admire and to encourage. But what really frustrates me about Wales is that we have a Government declaring a climate change emergency, and yet the actual concrete policies on the ground totally fly in the face of that declaration. As ever, I'll talk about local development plans,...
Neil McEvoy: That's a really good question. What we need to do is make it a political priority, because if it is a climate change emergency with this Government, then make it a priority. How much money was spent on the M4, for example? £115 million. I could stand here and list waste after waste after waste. Opportunity lost after opportunity lost. When you don't want to do something, saying there's not...
Neil McEvoy: Will you give way?
Neil McEvoy: Thanks. I'm saying this in the spirit of co-operation, because it's your party that put through the local development plan in Cardiff. So, I wonder whether you would maybe join me and other people to ask them to alter the plan, and to stop stages 3, 4 and 5, where a massive amount of environmental damage is going to be done. So, would you join us, cross-party, in doing that?
Neil McEvoy: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Minister—Deputy Minister—I'm really pleased to hear you talking about reducing the number of children in care. The fact that there's been a 34 per cent increase in 15 years is really, really concerning. I'd like to know more about the variations that you're talking about. If there are areas of Wales where the rate of looked-after children is almost three times...
Neil McEvoy: I fully support your policy and the direction it's going, I think the issue is that filtering down, because, on the ground level, children seem to be taken into care far too easily. So, my question is: how can we empower parents? Could we create a professional advocacy service for parents? Because there seems to be a blanket thing called avoiding future emotional harm, and child after child...
