Rhun ap Iorwerth: How many of us have remembered over the past year the importance of saying 'thank you' to those who work so selflessly across the health and care sectors to look after us? How many of us have stopped to think and realise that care doesn't just happen? We're cared for because people—our friends and neighbours, people we grew up with, went to school with—decided to commit their professional...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I don't need to explain too much about the content of the motion itself. We condemn the UK Government's proposal to give a tiny pay increase of 1 per cent for nurses—and I see the Minister laughing; perhaps he can explain why he's laughing in just a moment. We condemn the UK Government's proposal to give a totally inadequate 1 per cent pay rise to nurses and other NHS staff, which would...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Llywydd. I thank the Minister for his response to this debate and everyone who's participated—to Dai and Helen for reinforcing what's contained within this motion before us today. I'd like to thank Members of all parties and of the Government who have declared, as a matter of principle, how important it is that we reward our staff properly and pay them properly within...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 'Let’s be clear: a one-off COVID-19 bonus is not the significant and substantive pay rise that we have been calling for for our nursing staff. What we want from the Welsh Government is a commitment to ensuring fair pay for nursing, fair pay that addresses the 1,600+ vacancies in Wales, fair pay that encourages nurses to stay in the profession and fair pay that ensures the delivery of...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: That's what we want to deliver within health and care in Wales, and we want to ensure that our care staff are rewarded for their work. The Government's amendment withdraws that from this motion this afternoon. The Government says that it wants to pay a real living wage, but removes from our motion what we want to do in Government, in providing a minimum of £10 per hour for care staff. So,...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: These are broad-ranging regulations, and may I say at the outset that I agree with the general direction of travel and the pace or caution in terms of lifting restrictions generally? In terms of reopening schools and colleges, I think we all see that as a priority, and I'm pleased that we have moved from 'stay at home' to 'stay local', and, though it's a matter of guidance rather than...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you, Llywydd. Well, in the final health and care question session in this Senedd, may I take this opportunity to thank the Minister and his officials for their collaboration over the years? We haven't always seen eye to eye, but whilst I've been very willing to support the Government when I think they've got things right over the past 12 months, I know that the Minister will understand...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: This week is a week of commemoration and reflection exactly a year since that first lockdown. The UK Prime Minister's admitted that he made some wrong decisions in dealing with the pandemic, but I'm not going to ask that question of the Minister. What I want the Minister to do is to look back at the 20 years and more of Labour control of the NHS leading up to the pandemic. One lesson that...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: You have to remember that the health and care sector in Wales went into a decade of austerity off the back of decades of neglect by successive Labour and Conservative Governments in Cardiff and at Westminster. It's clear to me that health and care services in Wales were not prepared for this pandemic. Public health and the care sector in particular had been neglected. Pandemic planning, we...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: There's a great deal to be welcomed in the Finance Committee's report. I would like to put on record that I'm not a member of the committee, and haven't been for some time, but I'd like to thank Llyr Gruffydd for his work in chairing the committee, and the team supporting him. I have missed being a member of that committee. Given that the 2014 Act has been operational now for five years, and...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I thank Mark Isherwood for the opportunity to say a few words in the last debate in the fifth Senedd, and it's a very important debate. And all I want to say is that we can't overemphasise the importance of the care that's provided in our children's hospices in Wales. And having a robust commitment from the Government to ensure support for this sector is vital. I'm looking forward, hopefully,...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will the Minister make a statement on promoting the mental wellbeing of the people of Ynys Môn?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 1. Will the First Minister make a statement on the availability of housing in the local market in Ynys Môn? OQ56522
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, and may I congratulate you on your re-election as First Minister? And I think it's very appropriate that the first question of this new parliamentary term relates to an issue that is such a crisis, and one which people are insisting on having action upon. One clear contribution to the housing crisis is the uncontrolled growth in the second homes market. I see it on a...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: May I take this opportunity to congratulate the Minister on her appointment? I look forward to working closely with her to try to influence as best I can the major decisions that remain to be made, of course, as the pandemic continues. It has been interesting to hear some of the comments made by Dominic Cummings today, who stated that the UK Government had made disastrous mistakes in dealing...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Llywydd. A fortnight ago, I was wishing the First Minister well on his re-election and today I'm wishing the leader of Plaid Cymru well as he begins his period of paternity leave, and I'm sure that everyone would wish to send their best wishes to Adam and family. In March, the Royal College of Nursing said that three quarters of their members had reported an increase in...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: It's your prerogative, of course, to prioritise expenditure. I believe that health and care staff are a priority, and I think that the past year has shown that. What the RCN has said is that the last year has underlined problems that already existed: work pressures, low morale and the lack of staff, of course. The Welsh Government doesn't publish figures on empty posts in terms of nursing....
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 'I guess we will go beyond 1 per cent.' This shouldn't be a guessing game when it comes to band 5 registered nurses on less than £25,000 a year. But, if we use again Scotland's agreed 4 per cent increase as a reference point, are you happy to say here now that nurses here won't receive a lower settlement than that?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: You'll know that, in the recent election, I outlined Plaid Cymru's plans to ensure that care workers would also be recognised with a fair pay settlement. To us, that was part of creating a national health and care service, moving care workers onto NHS pay scales. You promised to pay care workers the real living wage. So, at the very least, let's see that implemented without delay. In that...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you for the statement, Minister. Clearly, the growth in the delta variant is a cause of concern, so I have three or four questions specifically in response to that. There is evidence that one dose of the vaccine is less effective in guarding against that variant. So, despite how excellent the process is going, with less than 50 per cent of the population over 16 having received two...
