Siân Gwenllian: 3. Will the First Minister make a statement on the support available to assist community hydro energy projects with their business rates? OAQ52935
Siân Gwenllian: And Plaid Cymru was very pleased to ensure that business rates relief for community energy projects as part of the budget agreement for this financial year with the Government, but there is no assurance to date that the business rate relief will be available for the next financial year or for ensuing years. These projects clearly need long-term assurances so that they can plan for their...
Siân Gwenllian: I’d like to ask for an update on ongoing parking problems along the A5 in the Lake Ogwen area in my constituency. Over a year has passed since local representatives asked for action and a particular plan to find a swift resolution to the problem in this area. Six months have passed since the Minister received a feasibility study of the problems, but, again, there has been no progress...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much to Lynne for the statement and for providing this opportunity for us to put a clear focus on children's rights here in Wales tonight. I'm particularly pleased, as I'm sure we all are, that Wales adopted the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 2011—the first nation in the UK to do so. It is entirely appropriate that the Welsh Government should publish a review of...
Siân Gwenllian: 'children’s rights appear to be an "add-on" within this budget',
Siân Gwenllian: rather than those rights being part of the analysis from the very outset, with that then leading to the budgetary decisions. So, yes, the children's commissioner is very critical, and has every right to be so, but, to be fair, she also said that there are few examples of good practice. There are very few examples of governments working systematically to ensure that priority is given to...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you, Llywydd. In light of the agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Labour Party negotiated two years ago, it was agreed that £2 million would be used specifically for promoting the Welsh language. You will be aware that what was at the heart of that agreement between Plaid and yourselves was a commitment to establish a language agency that would be at arm's length in order to do the...
Siân Gwenllian: So, you’re still talking about the creation of a commission, which is included in the proposals on the Welsh language Bill, but in the culture committee last week, you said that everything is up in the air in light of Brexit, and you gave no pledge that there would be a Bill before the end of this Assembly term or a commission either. In your manifesto for your hopes of becoming First...
Siân Gwenllian: Well, I think it is very pertinent that I ask that question, but I didn't get a response, of course. You did acknowledge at the culture committee that the promotional arrangements were deficient—to return to promotion—and that the Welsh language division, in its current form, doesn't have the capacity to be doing that meaningful and strategic promotional work. We truly need action on...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much. This week is part of the United Nation’s annual 16 Days of Activism campaign to fight against gender-based violence. The purpose of the campaign is to draw global attention to the huge problem of violence against women by urging action at a local, national and global level to tackle it. The courage and determination of the women who are part of organisations such as...
Siân Gwenllian: The petition, of course, relates to a specific issue and to which version of the code should be followed in a particular case on Ynys Môn—the old version or the new edition; 2013 rather than 2018. Now, I have no specific comments to make on that particular case or which version should be used. That's an issue of great detail that needs consideration. But I would like to take this...
Siân Gwenllian: Isn't the important point today not the formula—and we're getting dragged into discussing the funding formula—but isn't the important point here that there's been an increase in the budget for this year that gave the Government here a golden opportunity to start to shift the emphasis towards preventative services in local government? You've missed that opportunity.
Siân Gwenllian: Diolch. Just on that point about the Government not having an anti-poverty strategy, despite calls from the committee twice, three times, how disappointed are you that we are still without that anti-poverty strategy and that, in fact, we don't even know precisely who the Cabinet Minister responsible for anti-poverty across Government is? I thought it was Ken Skates, but now it's all of you....
Siân Gwenllian: Will the First Minister provide an update on the Bontnewydd bypass scheme, following the announcement in May that the scheme will go ahead?
Siân Gwenllian: It is a pleasure to speak today to the Plaid Cymru amendments and in favour of those amendments, of course, and I do so on behalf of the Arfon constituency, one of the constituencies that was most robust in its support for remaining within the European Union, with over 60 per cent having voted to remain. And, according to a recent opinion poll, 71 per cent of the people of Arfon would now...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you, Llywydd. I would like to make it clear at the very outset that Plaid Cymru will be voting against the Childcare Funding (Wales) Bill on the basis that we believe in the principle of free childcare. This is consistent with our approach at Stage 1, but we have introduced amendments in order to seek to strengthen the Bill in the hope that they can be agreed, even so late in the day....
Siân Gwenllian: I just want to know how many of these schemes are statutory and how many are reliant on short-term funding sources?
Siân Gwenllian: Just to formally pursue the point about all of these other programmes—these create huge confusion for people, people aren’t aware of them, and, for me, it would make common sense to bring everything together so that everyone who has children of the ages of three or four does have that right, then, to free childcare.
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much. Amendment 7, in the name of Plaid Cymru, relates to ensuring that the Minister has due regard to the Welsh language in childcare. Beginning with Welsh-medium education, or Welsh-medium childcare, from an early age is crucial if we are to reach the target of a million Welsh speakers, and, indeed, the Children, Young People and Education Committee, in July of this year,...
Siân Gwenllian: No, thank you.
