Huw Irranca-Davies: The premise of this debate today is a Conservative motion that asserts that the Conservative UK Government is failing local communities, or it should be. My communities are great communities. They've been challenged often over many decades, they've bowed sometimes, but they're never beaten, and they're full of great people. I sometimes feel that people from outside the Valleys never quite get...
Huw Irranca-Davies: It's an intervention.
Huw Irranca-Davies: I think the intervention—[Inaudible.]
Huw Irranca-Davies: He's taken a minute already.
Huw Irranca-Davies: I think he's gone on a little bit now.
Huw Irranca-Davies: [Inaudible.]—a minute. Sorry, Deputy Llywydd.
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Our communities, Darren, have now faced a decade of austerity in the vital public realm and cuts to social security, which have eaten into public services across the UK and impoverished already poor people. From the bedroom tax to the cuts in universal credit, this current Conservative Government is as familiar to our communities as the Thatcher Government...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Indeed, I would simply say, Deputy Presiding Officer, oppose the Conservative motion, support the Government motion. The Conservatives are letting our communities down.
Huw Irranca-Davies: Would the Member give way?
Huw Irranca-Davies: Would the Member acknowledge that, in the 1997 to 2010 Government, with Welsh Labour here and UK Labour at the UK Government, 1 million children were lifted out of absolute poverty—not relative poverty, absolute poverty? Independent figures will show that that was the case. The Institute for Fiscal Studies will show it. Does he agree with those figures, and what does he think made the...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Very, very brief indeed. I'm trying to seek an answer to the question I posed before: why is it that, when there was Welsh Labour Government here and a UK Labour Government as well, we saw a million children lifted out of poverty? What is it out of that strange coalition that happened that succeeded where the UK Government has failed, both before and after that Government?
Huw Irranca-Davies: 4. What plans does the Welsh Government have to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the launch of the Wales coast path? OQ57994
Huw Irranca-Davies: I thank the First Minister very much. Can I take this opportunity to thank the members of that review group, who've done sterling work over the last couple of months, looking at not only the successes and the remarkable undoubted achievements over the last 10 years—words such as 'iconic', 'inspirational', 'emblematic' have been used to describe this landmark achievement from 10 years...
Huw Irranca-Davies: What discussions has the Minister had with Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board regarding primary care in the Ogmore constituency?
Huw Irranca-Davies: Dirprwy Lywydd, you were looking directly at me when you said that, then. [Laughter.] I'll try to keep it very succinct, in that case. Can I welcome the tone and the substance of this statement today, because it seems to show that there is a genuine effort to be really constructive and engaged between Governments, but also I have to say in the context of the policy framework here in Wales?...
Huw Irranca-Davies: —the environmental aspects of this are also safeguarded? All of those organisations want to see this happen, like WWF, like the Wildlife Trusts, like the Marine Conservation Society, but they want, Minister, to make sure that it's done also protecting the wildlife and the biodiversity that we want to safeguard for future generations.
Huw Irranca-Davies: What steps is the Welsh Government taking to ensure there are bus services linking isolated communities in the Ogmore constituency?
Huw Irranca-Davies: 4. What engagement has the Minister had with Bridgend College on plans for campus development? OQ58034
Huw Irranca-Davies: Well, I really welcome that, and the Minister has been a good friend to the college, and has met Simon Pirotte on several occasions recently, and has seen the STEAM Academy development in Pencoed, which, I have to say, is a Wales leader in bringing together engineering technology, the creative arts and others on one campus, and it is an absolutely superb development for those young...
Huw Irranca-Davies: 3. What assessment has the Welsh Government made of any implications for Wales of the recent announcement by the UK Foreign Secretary regarding the intention to legislate to change the terms of the Northern Ireland protocol? TQ626
