Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much for taking an intervention. We won't be supporting the amendment, as it happens, although it's well known that I work very positively with the developers at Wylfa. There are a few things with this amendment that I would say are not consistent with certainly what I feel. Long term, I don't think nuclear is the answer; we've got to be clear on that. We've got to be clear...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 2. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on medical education in Bangor University? OAQ52969
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much. I celebrated as though it were my birthday—27 August, by the way—when we heard the news just a few weeks ago that medical education was going to be provided in Bangor from this next academic year onwards. Siân Gwenllian, I and the Plaid Cymru team more broadly have fought hard for this, and we were very pleased that we had reached agreement with the Government to...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: One element of this that hasn't been given a great deal of coverage, if any, I believe, over the past week is the fact that Flybe, through its subsidiary Eastern Airways, runs the link between Anglesey and Cardiff, which is a service that's more popular than it’s ever been. And I congratulate the Welsh Government in that regard. Can you, as Cabinet Secretary, tell us or share any concerns...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 2. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on train services following Transport for Wales's public apology for shortcomings in services? 236
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Maybe in your subsequent answer, you might want to join with Transport for Wales in apologising for the inconvenience that has been caused to travellers over the past few weeks. I personally thought the First Minister was hugely defensive yesterday when criticism was put to him of the situation on Wales's railways, and many thousands of passengers have suffered, failing to get to work or...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Formally.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Formally.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I wear several hats today. I live in a rural village where the school has been under threat recently. I am a former member of the Petitions Committee. And I am the Assembly Member of those who arranged this petition, parents and supporters of Ysgol Gymuned Bodffordd, who are sincerely battling very hard to save their school. There were 31 children in my first primary school. In the second,...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will you take an intervention?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: But you will add to that that, in a subsequent submission to Welsh Government, Anglesey council made it clear that they supported the code.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on dental services in north Wales?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you for this opportunity to reply and to make a few comments about the Plaid Cymru amendments. I agree with the content of the motion, and it’s our intention to strengthen the motion with our amendments today. In terms of the Government amendment, we are going to hear from the Minister, without doubt, about the effect of the austerity policies of the Conservative Government, and,...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Welsh local government can only see this as Labour's austerity here in Welsh Government, compounding a decade, almost, of deep and, to me, unforgivable Tory austerity cuts. Cutting spending by nearly 2 per cent when overall revenue funding is up by over 2.4 per cent—or 2.4 per cent—is about local government not being given the priority we on the Plaid Cymru benches say it...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: There are particular grants, and I certainly welcome any additional funding that finds its way into local government budgets, but unless we look at the overall local government budget and give them the freedom to make spending decisions themselves, they will not be able to face up to that overall squeeze on them, and that will end up putting more pressure on mental health services, on care. ...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will you take an intervention?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will you give way now?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much for taking an intervention. I agree wholeheartedly with you, as I said in my comments earlier on, about the devastating effects of Tory austerity, but isn’t the reality this time that we have a 2.4 per cent increase in the overall budget coupled to a 2 per cent decrease in local government budgets?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I think the point I made about that, and I'll make it again, was that these are decisions that, yes, we can look at in the context of today, but we should be looking at in the context of years. We've been talking for a long, long time about the need to think transformatively about how we spend money on health and social care—it hasn't happened. Now, as a result of the parliamentary review,...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you. If our nation was one that was genuinely civilised, then the statement by the UN rapporteur for extreme poverty would be seen as a moment of awakening once and for all, I think. It should be seen as an appalling situation that a state as rich and wealthy as the UK is put on a list of nations that can’t look after its poorest. I'm afraid that the clear suggestion from the response...
