Siân Gwenllian: 8. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on business rates relating to community energy projects? OAQ(5)0117(FLG)[W]
Siân Gwenllian: You’ll be aware that the community hydro sector has been very badly affected as business rates are revaluated. Over 92 per cent of hydro schemes in Wales face a huge increase, up to 900 per cent. Your manifesto for 2016 noted your party’s support to community energy schemes. Can you commit to offer a generous rate relief scheme to support community energy projects in Wales as happens in...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you. It’s a pleasure for me, on behalf of Plaid Cymru, to focus all our attention this afternoon on the importance of maintaining and developing strong local government in Wales. By strengthening our communities, we will also strengthen our nation. With the announcement made by the UK Prime Minister of an election on 8 June taking all of the attention of the press and politicians of...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much, and thank you for an interesting debate, despite the break in the middle. Janet Finch-Saunders, at the beginning of this debate, mentioned the impact of cuts on public services, but those are the cuts imposed by the Conservatives. They are your cuts, so it makes no sense, Janet, to vote Tory. It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever for anyone who wants to safeguard our...
Siân Gwenllian: No. Mae hyn yn ei dro yn creu dyledion, yn achosi straen ac yn effeithio ar ansawdd bywyd y gweithwyr a’u teuluoedd. Nid yw cytundebau dim oriau yn gytundebau teg, ac mae’n hollol amlwg bod angen i ni symud tuag at sefyllfa o ddileu’r math yma o gytundebau yng Nghymru, ac mae’r grym gennych chi yn y Llywodraeth. Yn ôl Gwasanaeth Ymchwil y Cynulliad, mae hyd at 48,000 o bobl yn...
Siân Gwenllian: Plaid Cymru supports the principles of the Trade Union (Wales) Bill, and we also welcome the desire to introduce an amendment on the use of agency workers, although we do agree that it would, perhaps, have been better for it to have been included from the outset, as the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee has stated. This Bill, of course, will disapply aspects of the UK...
Siân Gwenllian: Plaid Cymru will safeguard workers and public services in Wales, every step of the way. Thank you.
Siân Gwenllian: Despite what we’ve heard from one direction this afternoon, there is a general consensus in Wales that policing should be devolved to Wales, as has happened in Scotland, Northern Ireland, London and Manchester. I want to focus on two arguments why it makes sense to devolve to Wales. Effective policing means an effective and close relationship with the devolved services in Wales, and...
Siân Gwenllian: I want to focus on the integration of social care and health, and the problems that creating a more and more patchy system would create if we were to move towards using more and more private contractors. We’ve discussed the need to integrate health and social care on a number of occasions. There are a number of problems caused as different institutions argue over the different elements...
Siân Gwenllian: Plaid Cymru supports this proposal. Clearly, it is entirely unacceptable that landlords provide accommodation free of charge, but expecting to be ‘paid’ with sexual favours, and I truly hope that there is a way of preventing this. Unfortunately, as we have heard, there is evidence that this is happening in London, Bristol, Birmingham, in Scotland, and, unfortunately, now here in Wales...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much, and it’s a pleasure for me to move this motion. A lack of doctors in north Wales and rural areas in Wales creates a huge challenge for healthcare services. It would be possible to tackle the problem in the short term, but we also need to move forward to plan for permanent, long-term solutions. We need to train more doctors in north Wales, the area that has the greatest...
Siân Gwenllian: There’s a problem with general practice, as well. The north Wales medical committee has concerns regarding the sustainability of over a third of surgeries in the region: one in three surgeries is currently at risk. The committee says that we need an additional 70 GPs as a matter of urgency in north Wales. Now, in addition to the impact on patients, there is a financial cost to that shortage...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much to you all for your comments. I thank Mark Isherwood for presenting a number of arguments, and I do agree—yes, we do need to work jointly across north Wales and with Liverpool and Manchester, and whoever wants to work with us to improve the situation. Lee Waters mentioned problems in the Hywel Dda board area, but don’t blame the health boards only. Workforce planning...
Siân Gwenllian: I am fortunate enough to represent part of Snowdonia National Park, a distinctive area in terms of landscape, nature and way of life. As well as being one of the most beautiful places on earth, Snowdonia is also home to 26,000 people, many of whom work in the park from day to day. In recent years, there has been explosive growth in one part of the economy in the area, namely outdoor tourism....
Siân Gwenllian: 9. Will the First Minister make a statement on business rates in the community energy sector? OAQ(5)0686(FM)[W]
Siân Gwenllian: On Saturday, we launched two hydro energy projects in Arfon, Ynni Padarn Peris and Ynni Ogwen. Ynni Anafon is already in operation. I’m very pleased that we have three schemes that harness one of our most reliable natural resources, namely water, and that the profits generated are spent on projects in the community and bring benefits to local people. Unfortunately, the process of...
Siân Gwenllian: Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on funding plans under the Community Facilities Programme for 2017/18?
Siân Gwenllian: There’s been a great deal of emphasis on collaboration between councils at the regional level in the Welsh Government’s White Paper, ‘Resilience and renewed’. Plaid Cymru is eager to see the four western counties of Wales working strategically on issues that are unique to west Wales and arise from that unique knitting of the rural economy, housing, planning and the Welsh language. We...
Siân Gwenllian: Will the First Minister make a statement on funding higher education in Wales?
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much, and I’m very pleased to open this debate today and to move the motion. In March of this year, I published a report named ‘Reaching the Million’, which was brought together by Wales’s leading independent language policy and planning agency, which is IAITH: The Welsh Centre for Language Planning. I was very eager to contribute to the debate as the Government draws...
