Mike Hedges: It's always nice to find out you were right. I have said continually since 2011 that austerity is a political not an economic policy. I'm sure the Conservatives would like to apologise to public sector workers and users of public services for the austerity measures that have slowed down the economic growth and led to a mass use of foodbanks and the increase in homelessness. Just to help the...
Mike Hedges: I'm not sure that I agree with your statement that we're locked in poverty because of the UK system. I would argue that we're locked in poverty due to the capitalist system, but that is something that perhaps you wouldn't agree with. But I think that we have a problem with poverty and we need to address it. Finally, the other Plaid Cymru policy of independence and staying in the EU, if the UK...
Mike Hedges: The European Union would demand it, because that would stop goods entering into the European Union across that border. The European Union works on having control of goods outside the European Union coming in.
Mike Hedges: If you have a disability, you are more likely to be unemployed, and if you're in employment, you're more likely to be on the minimum wage. That's the reality for people with disabilities in Wales today. Whilst there are organisations like Barod—a community interest company based in Swansea, specialising in innovative training and information, where the owners and the workforce are an equal...
Mike Hedges: Will the Minister make a statement on developing the well-paid economic sectors in Swansea?
Mike Hedges: Last Tuesday, the Minister for Economy and Transport reported on employment and people with disabilities. Can I ask for a Government statement on what action is being undertaken by the Welsh Government, and more importantly Welsh Government's financially supported bodies, to increase the number of people with disabilities employed? Secondly, my opposition to incineration is well known and...
Mike Hedges: Can I welcome the statement by the Minister? Far too many children live in poor households. Tonight in Swansea some children will go to bed hungry. Even more mothers will go to bed hungry. Some will go to bed in a cold and damp house. Some children will change their school sometimes as often as every year as their parents move from one short-term privately rented house to another. There are...
Mike Hedges: If we're going to get large numbers of trees planted, then we need a plan, not a national target. Will the Welsh Government set annual targets at local authority level, designate land for tree planting, or ask local authorities to designate land for tree planting like they do in the local development plan for housing, and set a minimum number of trees to be planted per house for each new...
Mike Hedges: The Welsh Government is providing a lot of support for people who are homeless, but, as we all know, there are far too many people who are sleeping on the streets and far too many people who don't know where they're going to sleep tonight, and they're hoping a friend or relative will put them up. That is a bad state for us to be in in twenty-first century Wales. Does the Minister agree that...
Mike Hedges: I've had raised with me a number of concerns regarding litter, especially over the Christmas period. Can I ask for a Welsh Government statement on actions being taken to discourage littering? Two suggestions I have received are that first-time offenders attend a litter awareness course similar to the speed awareness course and that fast food restaurants print the car number plate on the...
Mike Hedges: We've had confirmed by the Conservative Westminster Government that austerity was a political not an economic policy. We're seeing real growth in the money available for the Welsh budget whilst the British economy continues to stagnate. The real-terms growth in money available has got to be welcomed. I think that any real-growth increase has got to be welcomed. It would be churlish not to....
Mike Hedges: I could give you an alternative. I'll give you an alternative: I'd take money out of the economy budget and I'd put it into the environment budget and I'd put it into the education budget. I'm only asking you to do top-line changes. But, I think, where you would take money off—. Because you have to take money off somewhere to put it in somewhere else. Can I start off with a request that's...
Mike Hedges: Certainly.
Mike Hedges: Yes, I would, and, yes, I said exactly the same thing last year and the year before. So, welcome. An example of a large organisation not working effectively is the Welsh ambulance service. This desperately needs to be run on a series of much smaller footprints. We've got long orthopaedic waiting lists, and these need addressing. I've got someone who's been waiting between four and eight...
Mike Hedges: Yes.
Mike Hedges: Well, I'm not sure that splitting it would actually be particularly beneficial. I think that actually having it under the control of hospitals so they are responsible for the ambulances waiting outside, rather than it being somebody else's responsibility—it makes no sense whatsoever. The ambulances are waiting outside, and it's not in the health board's interest to get the people out...
Mike Hedges: Two quick points. Will you agree with me that what we should be seeing is the Welsh Government publishing the calculations so that we can all actually see how you get to those numbers? If those were published, then we'd see who was right and who was wrong. The second point I would like to make, and I hope you would agree with me, is that the amount of money the Welsh Government gives—. It...
Mike Hedges: I've got a quick intervention. Of course, you know the money that local authorities hold, some of that is for some of these major repairs. If I talk about Plasmarl school in your region and my constituency, they've had a new roof, and they've had full electrical rewiring. So, that's what the money held centrally is partly used for, and it is what you've just asked for.
Mike Hedges: Diolch, Llywydd. I'm pleased to contribute to today's debate on behalf of the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee and to make a comment on the financial implications, which are expected, as the Minister said, to be minimal and likely to be so small as not to affect either the councils or the circuses themselves. I would like to place on record my thanks to all those who...
Mike Hedges: Will the First Minister make a statement on the building of council houses in Wales?
