Rhun ap Iorwerth: You’re certainly right, I agree, and Ofgem is key. I’ll come on to some of the deliberations that I have had with Ofgem in a minute. It’s crucial that we move, as we’re hopefully going to be doing in the Assembly today, to a situation where there is an assumption in favour, through Ofgem allowing that, of undergrounding. I’ll go on. Mae cost ychwanegol tanddaearu, wrth gwrs, yn...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: One of the points raised by Simon Thomas was that it’s the agglomeration effect that they’ve taken into account in Denmark in saying, ‘Right. Let’s underground a lot of these cables because of the need for investment in renewables’.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: And Wales?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Does the First Minister agree that what the latest figures on accident and emergency waiting times published last week—especially those waiting more than 12 hours—what they show is that it’s a year-round capacity issue that we face with, on average, around 3,000 patients waiting longer than 12 hours month after month, after month, after month? Isn’t that evidence of a systemic problem...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 6. Will the First Minister make a statement on the National Grid's plans in Ynys Môn? OAQ(5)0399(FM) [W]
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Last Wednesday, the National Assembly for Wales made a very clear statement that it’s our democratically expressed wish in this place for the National Grid to seek alternative methods of making new electricity connections in Wales instead of putting in place new pylons for any new developments here. That’s particularly pertinent to us in Ynys Môn, of course, where we face seeing a new...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you, Llywydd. My questions are also to the Minister. Pressures on emergency departments in our hospitals have an impact on both sides of Offa’s dyke and have been in the headlines again, and there are many reasons for those problems. But, I want to concentrate on the role of social care. Does the Minister agree that good social care services play an important role in preventing people...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: We know, of course, what percentage of our budget is spent on the NHS, but the same attention or prestige is not given to social care budgets. In England, of course, we know that the Conservatives have cut the funding available for social care and the impact of that, I think most would agree, has been clear in terms of increasing the pressure on hospitals. Here, in Wales, the Welsh Government...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Perhaps the Minister should be trying to find out why those adaptations have been declining and why the equipment has not been going out at rates at which it has in the past because that all has an effect and a knock-on further down the line within our health and social care system. Let me draw your attention to another service that is vastly underappreciated—that of unpaid carers. Last...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’d like to thank everyone who has contributed to this debate this afternoon. I’ll thank also some who haven’t had the opportunity in this afternoon’s debate to express their opinion on record. I’ll name Jenny Rathbone, of course, who’s one who’s signed this motion and who is here in the Chamber supporting this 100 per cent, this...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: [Continues.]—a full public inquiry shouldn’t be any reason for the Government to delay, any further, coming to a just settlement for those people who have suffered. I will of course take the intervention.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I’m grateful to the Member for making that intervention, and she’s absolutely right, of course, that what we want is a full, a complete, inquiry. We’ve waited long enough to get the answers to the questions that we ask. I’m grateful that that point has been made. Inquiries that we have seen in Scotland have been useful in terms of the compensation structure, but it’s not enough in...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Diolch yn fawr iawn, Lywydd. I move the amendments tabled in my name. It is a timely and appropriate debate, perhaps not for the reasons the party opposite think. It’s timely because, once again, the party’s new leader has confirmed that his party’s long-term goal is to privatise the NHS—[Interruption]. He has, once again, placed on record his view that he has not changed his mind...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Are you able to provide any evidence of that?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I’ll take another intervention, by all means, or we can return to the subject at hand.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: There is no intervention because the Member is, quite frankly, being ridiculous. In amendment 5, we become more specific about how primary care needs to improve. It requires a combination of primary care, secondary care and social care working together far more, with investments made in the most appropriate place rather than setting arbitrary percentages, and working alongside wider...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Would you give way?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will you take an intervention? Will you take an intervention?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I’ve also raised concerns in this Chamber with the First Minister on a series of announcements in my constituency. There have been further announcements recently on financial institutions, not only banks, closing: HSBC in Holyhead, and the Yorkshire Building Society in Llangefni. They are the latest two. The outcome of this, of course, is that there is a centralisation of services in...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I went on a visit on Monday to Cemlyn, which is a coastal site owned by the National Trust on the north Anglesey coast. It’s a very important site in terms of biodiversity, including a high percentage of the global population of the sandwich tern. It is one of the oldest nature reserves in Britain, going back almost a century. Anyone who’s familiar with Cemlyn will know that it’s in the...
