Dawn Bowden: I thank Mark Isherwood for those comments and questions. I think much of what he says I absolutely agree with. These islands have a long history of slavery and our part in that history has not always covered us in glory. But we do have to look at it in the context of what was happening at that time. That was part of what the whole process of the Legall audit was: to identify people that we...
Dawn Bowden: Diolch, Heledd, for those comments and questions. I absolutely agree with everything that you said—your questions and the context in which you set those questions. We have all had to face, quite rightly, some very, very uncomfortable truths as we dealt with the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd and what came after that. And you're quite right that it is a tragedy that we had to wait...
Dawn Bowden: Thanks for those questions, Jenny, and I think they're very important points, that we have commemorations of people in the past—. I go back to my answers to Mark Isherwood's points—we have people that we have commemorated in the past that we wouldn't commemorate today, for all the reasons that we know. And I think the importance of identifying these people, which is what the audit did,...
Dawn Bowden: Can I thank Heledd Fychan for that question? I met with the BBC yesterday, and we are working with them to understand the impact of the deeply concerning UK Government licence fee announcement and what it means for services and the media sector in Wales.
Dawn Bowden: Can I thank Heledd Fychan for those further comments? I largely agree with everything that she has said. Public service broadcasters play an incredibly important role in Wales's cultural and economic life, and we're deeply concerned at the reckless UK Government announcement made concerning both their immediate and long-term future. The people of Wales expect and deserve public service...
Dawn Bowden: Well, can I thank Samuel Kurtz for that further question? He is absolutely right, S4C did have a more favourable settlement than the BBC, and the work that S4C are undertaking in terms of developing Welsh language programming is to be welcomed and I am absolutely happy to do that. However, this question was about funding of the BBC, and the BBC and its wider role in terms of supporting public...
Dawn Bowden: Formally.
Dawn Bowden: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'm pleased to be able to respond today to this debate, and would say at the outset that the Welsh Government rejects the overall motion that's before us today. But I am also delighted to see that the latest evidence supports our plan to move to alert level 0, as set out in our amendment. From a personal point of view, I'm particularly looking forward to seeing...
Dawn Bowden: Go on.
Dawn Bowden: The answer is what I've already given. The TAC advice and the SAGE advice were available at the time that we made those decisions. As I said, the public health consensus, not just in Wales but across the UK, was that it was unlikely that the booster programme alone would prevent a significant burden of direct COVID-related harm in the period immediately after Christmas and we needed to do...
Dawn Bowden: I'm not taking any more interventions, Dirprwy Lywydd. So, the argument that the actions taken by the people of Wales had no impact on the transmission of omicron is not only offensive, but it is not borne out by the facts. Indeed, we now see that the latest ONS figures show that the rate of infections in Wales is much lower than England, with Wales infection rates currently standing at 3.7...
Dawn Bowden: No, I'm not taking any further interventions, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'm not taking any further interventions, no.
Dawn Bowden: Llywydd, despite the good news today on infection rates, families have still lost loved ones to COVID in recent weeks, and people in every community across Wales have continued to make difficult sacrifices to help keep themselves and their loved ones safe. Their efforts have ensured that Wales is emerging from this omicron wave in a stronger position. And all the while, we watched the...
Dawn Bowden: The interim findings of a survey conduced by Cardiff University show that 85 per cent of respondents agreed that support from the economic resilience fund was as important as furlough. So, to be clear, we did not take the most recent decisions to move to alert level 2 without considering the business consequences or the consequences for our culture, arts and sports sectors, which is why we...
Dawn Bowden: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, and can I thank Russell George for raising the Montgomery canal project with us today? I know he's long championed this project, and has again highlighted the achievements of the many enthusiastic local volunteers who give so much of their time, energy and skills to the canal restoration project, which has been running now for many decades, as we've heard. It truly is...
Dawn Bowden: Thank you. Thank you very much, Llywydd, and thank you, Mabon, for bringing this debate forward. This is a subject very close to my heart, and what I would say, I love the title of the debate: 'The more I practise, the luckier I am', because all I can think is that all the teams that I support clearly don't practise very much because they're not very lucky, that's for sure. But it is an...
Dawn Bowden: We must have a clear approach for delivering on that commitment. I'm focused on investing at both elite level and at the community, grass-roots level for all the reasons that you set out in your speech. Our investment at elite level, investing in world-class sports facilities to support our nation's sporting success on the global stage, is key to inspiring the next generation. We know that...
Dawn Bowden: I thank Tom Giffard for that question. I think the COVID passes did what they set out to do. At the time that COVID passes were introduced, of course, we were in the middle of a significant rise in COVID cases. We then saw, on the back of that, the omicron wave, and we had to do something to try and get some confidence back into the sector. So, in the areas where we used COVID passes, they...
Dawn Bowden: I think you need to look at it in the context of what we were doing. This was one of a suite of measures. It wasn't a stand-alone measure, that we just introduced COVID passes. It went along with, as you say, the vaccination programme. It was part of—. Having a COVID pass was encouraging people to have the vaccination. It also sat alongside other measures, including social distancing and...
Dawn Bowden: The first thing I would say is this is very interesting, isn't it, to hear this from the unionist party that is now talking about an English inquiry? This is not an English inquiry, this is a UK inquiry of which Wales will be part, and there will be a very specific Welsh element to that inquiry that the First Minister has talked about in this Chamber many times, and has been very specific in...
