Siân Gwenllian: The first plans for this business park were published in the year 2000. New roads were built and a new roundabout, and a new entrance to the park was also opened. It was pledged that at least 1,500 jobs would be created. Now, 18 years later, not a single job—not a single job—has been created despite the millions of pounds invested to develop Parc Bryn Cegin. Isn’t it time for the Welsh...
Siân Gwenllian: I am very pleased to be able to contribute to this debate on parenting and employment. My experience as a woman who brought up four children alone and the necessity to continue working during that period is a handy background, I believe. Taking part in the committee inquiry hasn’t been a pleasant experience, I must say, because we found that women are still facing prejudice, bias and...
Siân Gwenllian: One thing is very clear: being a mother leads to a financial penalty, creating inequality in relation to wages on the basis of gender, and that inequity refuses to budge. The wages of fathers, nevertheless, do not appear to be generally affected by raising children. There are practical steps that can be taken and the committee does note flexible working and childcare as two specific items to...
Siân Gwenllian: 2. What is the Welsh Government's long-term vision for the development of bus services in the countryside? OAQ52656
Siân Gwenllian: Of those using public transport, 80 per cent use buses. In rural areas, such as parts of my constituency in Arfon, there are no trains available, and the bus is the only option for people without cars to travel to work and to access crucial services. But the truth is that we need to transform bus services in rural areas, and Plaid Cymru wants to give far more power to local councils so that...
Siân Gwenllian: Is it possible to have a statement on the situation on medical education in Bangor—an update, that is? Constituents are contacting me asking whether it is possible to apply for an undergraduate course in medicine in Bangor University from 2019 onwards. Of course, this is in the light of the announcement earlier this year about the partnership between Bangor and Cardiff universities to...
Siân Gwenllian: 10. What impact assessments have been completed on the implications of the 'Brexit and our land' proposals for the Welsh language? OAQ52685
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much. That’s what I suspected: no assessments and no intention of doing that until the results of the consultation are collated. Now, it’s clear that a fair bit of officials' time and Government money has already been invested in developing the proposals contained within 'Brexit and our land'. So, isn’t this process, the Government process of developing policy, entirely...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much. You will recall that an attempt to scrap the regulations on the distribution of temporary blue badges was one of the first debates in the fifth Assembly. At that point, we on this side of the Chamber supported you on the basis that having a deficient scheme for the blue badges was better than having no scheme at all. But the deficiencies of that new scheme are now...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much for that. It’s a little odd that an issue that is fundamentally about equality is in another portfolio, but I will write to you on that. I will continue to ask questions on blue badges because it’s becoming more and more apparent that over the past decade the attitudes of governments towards disabled people have veered towards placing criteria that are much harsher and...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you for that. There’s one other aspect that I’d like you to discuss with the Cabinet Secretary for the economy, therefore, namely the guidance that is related to organisations that own minibuses that use blue badges. The regulations and the guidance have been drafted poorly and an organisation that would hope to take disabled people out on day trips and so on will have difficulty...
Siân Gwenllian: I welcome the opportunity to have this debate in the Senedd today on your proposal, and the Commission's proposal, to bring forward a series of reforms to strengthen our major democratic intuition here in Wales. Twenty years have passed since the legislation establishing the National Assembly was passed, and at that time the organisation was more similar to a county council than a national...
Siân Gwenllian: Gwynedd Council is among the councils that will suffer most as a result of cuts following the local government settlement: a cut of up to £11 million, and that’s on top of years of dreadful cuts. On the other hand, the north Wales health board is operating on an annual financial deficit of around £26 million last year, despite the fact that the health board is in special measures and...
Siân Gwenllian: 5. Will the First Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's policy on the taxation of second homes? OAQ52794
Siân Gwenllian: I'm sure you'd agree that the fact that 5 million people in Britain now own two or more homes, whilst almost 700,000 people are reliant on food packs from the Trussell Trust charity is one of the clearest signals that our society is increasingly inequitable and unfair. There are 5,000 second homes in Gwynedd, whilst almost 2,000 are on the waiting list for social housing in the county. I am...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you for the statement on this important issue on action on disability and the right to independent living. It’s an important topic, but with all due respect, the statement itself doesn't enlighten us a great deal. What we have is a statement telling us that there’s an announcement to be made. Next week, the Government will publish its new framework and action plan—that’s what...
Siân Gwenllian: According to recent research by Chwarae Teg, young women still favour sectors that are traditionally dominated by women, despite the need for more women in areas such as the STEM subjects, for example. One claim made in the report is that careers advice services don’t provide the necessary support for young girls. I do know that a number of individuals are doing excellent work, but is the...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you. Every October, we celebrate Black History Month in Wales in order to give individuals and communities throughout Wales the opportunity to recognise the contribution of black people to the economic, political and cultural history of Wales. It's also an opportunity for the wider community to learn, celebrate and share our rich national history with the world. We are extremely proud...
Siân Gwenllian: Under the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011, the Welsh Ministers do have to give due regard to specific provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in carrying out its functions, but the legislation doesn’t provide a means of operating when rights under the convention are not adhered to. If Wales leave the European Union, many legal safeguards for the...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much for the statement. I have consistently called on you in this place to take action, and it’s positive to see a statement of your intent to do that in the area of language technology. Indeed, this is an area that both I and Plaid Cymru are very interested in, as you will know. At the National Eisteddfod in August, I and my colleague Jill Evans held an event on European...
