Neil McEvoy: I’m really glad the Member has just said what he said. I’d like to pay tribute to Nick Ramsay that he chairs the committee in such an equitable way. I’d like to pay tribute to Mike as well, who does a great job on Petitions Committee—the quickest committee in the Senedd, I think. Very well chaired. Moving on, if we look at what the Public Accounts Committee has been looking at with...
Neil McEvoy: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the provision of youth services in Cardiff? Transferred for written answer by the Minister for Lifelong Learning and Welsh Language.
Neil McEvoy: Will the Cabinet Secretary for health make a statement on the Government policy towards surrogacy? Because many women in Wales unable to carry children as a result of cancer, for example, are being denied funding for IVF treatment unless a surrogate has already been identified. I think this whole area needs a lot of clarification, and we would be very grateful if the issue of funding for IVF...
Neil McEvoy: Will you give way?
Neil McEvoy: I appreciate you very much for taking my intervention. Now, semantics and words matter. Today I have listened and I have heard the words ‘us’, ‘this country’ and ‘our’. I think what we're hearing today is the difference between the UK nationalism of people in this Chamber and the Welsh nationalism that you find on this side, because when we talk about our country, we mean Wales....
Neil McEvoy: Will the First Minister respond to evidence submitted by Public Affairs Cymru to the Standards Committee which states that over half of its members have been asked to reconsider standpoints or not say certain things when the Welsh Government is not in agreement?
Neil McEvoy: First Minister, the real question you should be answering is what you are going to do to try and restore just some credibility in the Welsh Government after giving the business community in Wales 53 million reasons to lose faith in you. At least £53 million is how much your Government has lost in gross incompetence with business support and land deals—£53 million lost at least. When will...
Neil McEvoy: 5. Will the First Minister make a statement on the role of the third sector in Wales? OAQ(5)0446(FM)
Neil McEvoy: Diolch, First Minister. Are you aware that Public Affairs Cymru revealed that over half its members had stated that the examples have occurred—I'm quoting now— ‘where lobbyists and campaigners have been asked to reconsider standpoints or not to say certain things with which the Welsh Government is not in agreement’? Well, first of all, I thought lobbyists had no contact with...
Neil McEvoy: Before I reply, could the Minister please confirm who Lawrence Conway is? Is it the same Lawrence Conway who headed up Rhodri Morgan’s office? [Interruption.] Yes? Is that right, Minister?
Neil McEvoy: No, it certainly isn’t. I think it has been confirmed by the Chamber that we are talking about the same person. Really, Sport Wales is just another disaster of a recurring theme of your Government, really. We have a crisis that you hadn’t seen coming and things have got so bad that you’ve had to undertake major surgery instead of resolving things at an early stage. I’ve already raised...
Neil McEvoy: 1. What assessment has the Cabinet Secretary made of the findings in the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ recent annual Green Budget? OAQ(5)0090(FLG)
Neil McEvoy: Thanks, Cabinet Secretary. You are right, the green budget talks about tax rises or cuts that we face, and a very difficult future in Wales. But one thing we could do to help would be to stop money leaving Wales. I’ll give an example. In Cardiff West, the Earl of Plymouth is about to make roughly £1.4 billion from land sales that will destroy the countryside there. So, the question is: why...
Neil McEvoy: First Minister, I put in a freedom of information request to Cardiff Airport, owned by the Welsh public. I wanted to know how much money had been spent on lobbying firms, what companies had been employed, and whether or not there had been a tender process gone through by those lobbying companies. Now, this is owned by the Welsh public, so the public have a right to know these things. The...
Neil McEvoy: Cabinet Secretary, in my party’s Assembly manifesto, we called for 2018 to be designated as a national year of Welsh food and drink. [Interruption.] I’m still in the party. Easy, please. 2017 is the Year of Legends, so does your Government support my party’s call for a national food and drink year next year?
Neil McEvoy: Oh, right. The year after? [Laughter.]
Neil McEvoy: Diolch, Lywydd. I’ll just wait for colleagues to clear the Chamber.
Neil McEvoy: Thanks. Okay. Please feel free to interject and contribute if you wish. The idea is to float this as something that we want to do in the not-too-distant future in this city. So, I’ve called a debate to see whether or not, here in the National Assembly for Wales, we can start to advance the idea of a Welsh stock exchange. I’m really pleased to see that Plaid Cymru’s policy of...
Neil McEvoy: I suppose, really, the elephant in the room is that stock exchanges are typically private companies. There are some examples of publicly owned stock exchanges—the Shenzhen and Shanghai stock exchanges are really quasi-state institutions, as far as they were created by Government bodies in China and have leading personnel directly appointed by the China Securities Regulatory Commission....
Neil McEvoy: I declare an interest because this matter does relate to Cardiff council. It’s an important matter and relates to transport. The cabinet member for transport on Cardiff council is refusing to act on dangerous routes to school. Two roads come to mind: Heol Isaf in Radyr, where cars speed at up to 70 mph, and Caerau Lane in Caerau, where the road heads towards Mary Immaculate High School and...
