Rhun ap Iorwerth: Very briefly, politics and politicians can be accused sometimes of being out of touch with the public who elect us. It is an accusation that may be fair at times, and sometimes I believe it can be unfair. But, in this case, with this amendment, what we have is a bridge, directly between this piece of legislation that we are discussing as parliamentarians and our electors—the people of...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Formally.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 6. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the role of local government in the delivery of public services? OAQ52328
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you. At the beginning of the week, your fellow Members of Government the Cabinet Secretary for health and the Minister for social care announced a plan for the future of health and care, and one of the objectives is to ensure better collaboration and, indeed, integration between the work of local government and health boards. Now, one question that’s been playing on my mind, and that...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: One of the most powerful tools, surely, for encouraging youth cricket in Wales would be to have a national cricket team that young people the length and breadth of the country could aspire to and find role models in. You say that this is not a matter for Government. Let's perhaps explore what might be a matter for Government. You have a major events unit, for example, that funds a host of...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I'll try and keep my comments brief. I think that I have about four questions here. In terms of the statistics that are gathered, a target has been set of 26 weeks in terms of waiting for the first assessment—and the data is being gathered. When are we going to have this data being published, because I think that any data that's available has to be published? In terms of passing...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: This is a public health Bill. Safeguarding, promoting and improving public health is surely one of the main duties that we have. The tools in the battle against smoking are ones that people expect us to use by now, and people support that. It's difficult to imagine any opposition to the smoking ban indoors now, and implementing that law was not difficult because people accepted its...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: We’re not quite in the same place with this Bill yet. There are doubts, and we shouldn’t ignore those, in terms of why we are doing this, how effective this will be, and we don’t have the full evidence yet. But the evidence is strong that using financial incentives—that is, changing the price of drinks—does affect how much people drink, and I support that as a matter of principle,...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I've contacted you, as a Minister, in the past, reporting problems with broadband in Ynys Môn. I made an appeal back in April for the latest information. I have another report—I'm sure that I can send you a copy. It's evident that there are a number of areas that have missed out by a hair's breadth, perhaps, on Superfast Cymru—Landdona, Llansadwrn, Brynsiencyn, Cefniwrch and Rhydwyn are...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: First of all, I would like to offer my sympathies to all the workers who are going to be hit by this, and I regret once again that we see a very skilled workforce being let down. My concern is the pattern of seeing jobs being cut in Wales, and that the Welsh Government, to all intents and purposes, doesn’t have information about these cuts until the decision has been made. I’m sure that...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much. Thank you for the opportunity to wish a happy birthday to an institution that’s made a huge contribution to health and fitness on Anglesey, and which also happens to be a centre of sporting excellence of worldwide renown.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: One of the highlights of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games was Welsh weightlifter Gareth Evans's stunning gold medal-winning performance. His lifting was immense, but just as impressive was the passion he showed in running over to his coach, Ray Williams, to celebrate. Ray himself had realised a dream as a coach, but before coaching, he himself had won gold for Wales at the 1986 games in...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Happy birthday and a long life to an institution that’s done so much for its community and, through its excellence, has done so much to put Holyhead and Anglesey on the global sporting map.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Diolch yn fawr iawn. I've spoken many times here about the importance of workforce planning and I'm very pleased that we are now talking regularly about health and social care workforce planning; both are vital, of course. Look at many of the problems that we face in terms of health and care—capacity, waiting times, integration. Workforce is central, I think, to the answers that we are...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I will mention both amendments. There are no surprises, it’s fair to say, and I make no apologies for that, because we will be unable to provide the NHS that we want unless we establish a centre for medical education in Bangor and expand medical placements across Wales. And the other amendment: we’re not going to be able to provide the healthcare that we want and the health services we...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Yes, of course.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: The point that I made about the ability to describe symptoms in your first language is equally true whichever language we are talking about, but, of course, there is—I won't even use the words 'special case' for the Welsh language, seeing as we are in Wales. But, of course, the Member makes a perfectly valid point.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: To return to the figures, with GPs, we know that there is a shortage of GPs in any case, and Government figures published today show an increase in the number of people complaining that they have to wait a long time for treatment, but the number of Welsh speakers has significantly declined too. So, action is needed now. We have seen that the statistics in terms of training places for GPs are...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Please forgive me for making the obvious intervention. Perhaps you'd like to explain to us and make it clear that that is not as a result of anything like a Brexit dividend, which doesn't exist.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 2. Will the First Minister make a statement on Glastir grant payments? OAQ52433
