Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. Can I first of all thank the First Minister for his kind remarks about the spirit of the amendments? There was a tantalising reference there to the one amendment that the Government hasn't been able to accept. I hope it's not the amendment calling for support for the request, the unanimous request, by the four chief constables and the four police and crime commissioners for...
Adam Price: First Minister, the criminal murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in the United States has re-ignited the debate around racism on both sides of the Atlantic. Do you agree that structural racism lies at the heart of this injustice, and if we truly believe that black lives matter that we have to acknowledge that and address it? And is that structural racism, in your view, one...
Adam Price: The Royal College of Nursing in Wales has said that the COVID work assessment tool introduced by NHS Wales, though welcomed, does not currently identify those workers from BAME backgrounds as being at a very high risk. Why is that, and will you work with them to get this right urgently? And will you also make sure that BAME voices are well represented in the work on building back better? In...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. The need for a COVID inquiry is not in question in today's debate. What the motion and the amendments that have been tabled are trying to do is to establish the answers to other questions about the nature of the inquiry: who will appoint it, who will chair it, when will it begin, when will it produce its findings? And alongside the 'who' and the 'when' there is the question...
Adam Price: First Minister, I warmly welcome the comments you made at the end of your statement and I would like to return to the issue of the implications for us in Wales of the appalling events in the United States. Now, who we commemorate from our past reflects our values as a society today. Would it be appropriate, therefore, in your view, First Minister, to conduct a Wales-wide review, as is...
Adam Price: The way we teach our history has the capacity to either reproduce the past or change the future. So, First Minister, in addition to the general commitment you gave in your statement, which is very welcome, I was wondering if you would be prepared to give two further specific commitments today. The Welsh Government currently funds a woollen, maritime, slate and coal museum, even one for the...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. On behalf of Plaid Cymru, can I send our deepest condolences to Oscar’s family—to Firdaus, Natasha—and to friends and Senedd colleagues, especially on the Conservative benches? Oscar was generous and genial to his core—a political free spirit in many ways; a larger than life character who could never be contained in the confines of any one party. He belonged to all of...
Adam Price: First Minister, some residents had only returned to their homes following the February flooding when torrential rain fell in the village of Pentre last week, causing further damage to properties. In 2017 Welsh Ministers were expected to appoint a chair and members to the flood and coastal erosion committee before the end of that year. In reality, members of that committee, which was...
Adam Price: We're in the middle of two immediate crises—health related and economic. But there is a third—the ecological crisis, which we can't afford to ignore. It will have long-term consequences, but there will also be some immediate ones, including an increased risk of flooding. Now, research by the universities of Birmingham and Southampton shows that planting trees around rivers could reduce...
Adam Price: Since 2015, Natural Resources Wales has been suffering a steady decline in funding, while being tasked with more and more responsibilities. NRW is now facing a further cut of £7.5 million. So, the Welsh Government is cutting back on funding, cutting back on tree planting, and seemingly cutting back on its commitment to tackling the climate emergency. Now, what many people in the Rhondda and...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, this week, we've seen some encouraging news from Scotland, with the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths there falling to three in total over the last five days, and Professor Devi Sridhar predicting that Scotland could be practically COVID-free in terms of non-imported cases by the end of the summer. In England, by way of contrast, it's been reported that the...
Adam Price: Many countries have successfully suppressed the virus to near-zero new cases. New Zealand is regarded as the world leader, but it's not alone. Greece, Slovenia, Austria, Norway have also suppressed the virus to the extent that restrictions there are now limited and new cases rare, and, like Wales, those countries are not islands either. I take the First Minister's point, but would he like...
Adam Price: Even in those countries that have been successful in disease suppression, of course the price of liberty from the virus, if you like, is eternal vigilance, particularly as regards new outbreaks, and we see possibly in Leicester as well, don't we, the danger potentially of not having local intelligence turned quickly enough into local action. So, drawing on recent experience in Wales as well,...
Adam Price: Thank you, Llywydd. May I at the outset endorse the comments on the appalling genocide in Srebrenica? They will not be forgotten.
Adam Price: First Minister, I've been contacted by the owner of a care home in my constituency. His employees, as he puts it, are hard working and undervalued, and he urgently wants the Welsh Government to honour the promise made in May that every worker in a care setting would receive £500. Waiting for Westminster has never served us well in Wales and, yes, the UK Treasury needs to find its moral...
Adam Price: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of the care sector and, I have to say, after reading the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee report today, also its neglect. The care sector has been characterised by zero-hours contracts and low pay for decades. PayScale research estimates the hourly rate on average, for example, to be £8.19. Valuing our care workers must surely start...
Adam Price: The Royal College of Nursing and 13 health unions have written to the English Prime Minister, as he's come to be known, asking for discussions on an early NHS pay rise. Will you show the way and also reward our NHS staff? If the current health crisis has taught us anything, it is that valuing those who look after us at the dawn of our lives, the twilight of our lives, and every point in...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, last week, a study published by Oxford's Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science found that face coverings are effective in reducing the spread of COVID-19 for the wearer and those around them, and this adds, of course, to a growing body of evidence that supports the same conclusion. The study further noted that after the World Health Organization announced...
Adam Price: The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation recently projected the difference between universal use of face masks in the UK between now and November would be 20,000 additional deaths. On a proportionate basis, we would be talking about around a 1,000 deaths potentially in Wales. As part of the review that he's referred to, would he specifically ask the technical...
Adam Price: I think the point in that study and, indeed, of other scientists who have vigorously supported the use of face masks, is, as you change the level of restrictions and you therefore lead to more people being in more contact, having a face covering is an additional measure that can then change the number of cases and, indeed, the number of deaths. Can I just stay with the care sector? If the...
