Jane Dodds: 7. Will the Minister make a statement on the support available to small businesses in Mid and West Wales? OQ57672
Jane Dodds: Thank you, Minister. Small and medium-sized enterprises, as you have said, account for 62.4 per cent of employment and 37.9 per cent of turnover, worth around £46 billion for the Welsh economy. Just last week I spoke to a restaurant owner in my region who is actively considering closing their doors because of not being able to recruit staff. Could I ask what the mechanism is for how the...
Jane Dodds: Good afternoon, Minister, and happy birthday. Thank you to Russell for raising this point. I'm very pleased to hear that these plans are moving forward, and I would like to thank Russell, who has worked so hard on this project—and some collaboration, I hope, across north Powys. Following on from your response to Russell, can I just ask what kind of process will be in place to continue to...
Jane Dodds: Diolch, Llywydd. This Friday, 18 February, is international Care Day, celebrating care-experienced children and young people. Too often, young people tell us that they are made to feel like they don't belong, so the theme of this year is 'Together we create community,' celebrating the strength of the care-experienced community and highlighting the importance of ensuring that every child and...
Jane Dodds: Thank you to Rhys ab Owen for moving this motion today. It'll surprise nobody that I will speak in favour of this motion today.
Jane Dodds: Surely, none of us want an electoral system that guarantees safe seats, guarantees huge majorities for less than 50 per cent of the vote, and a system that breeds political division and a lack of interest in voting. Surely, we all want to make sure that every vote counts. And we are all working hard to get people to stand, and to make sure they are involved in elections and vote. So, I do...
Jane Dodds: Let us all ensure that every vote counts.
Jane Dodds: We all want to see every vote count, and make sure that people are more confident in their democracy. Thank you. Diolch yn fawr iawn.
Jane Dodds: Thank you, Llywydd, and thank you to Jack Sergeant for bringing this issue forward this afternoon.
Jane Dodds: The Welsh Liberal Democrats join with all of the political parties to condemn this war and condemn Putin. We have all heard the upsetting stories of people who are remaining in Ukraine and those desperately fleeing. I hope that the outpouring of support from people across Wales and the United Kingdom signals a shift in public discourse around refugees and migration more broadly. As we've...
Jane Dodds: Thank you for your statement, Deputy Minister. I wholeheartedly welcome this plan, setting out a range of steps that we are taking here in Wales to ensure that every child has the best start in life, now and in future. But there are four elements of the plan I wanted to just touch base on, and I would appreciate a response on those four areas in brief from you. First, I welcome the fact that...
Jane Dodds: May I thank the Conservatives for bringing this issue forward, and thank Tom for opening this debate? It was wonderful to hear you make a contribution in Welsh. Thank you for that.
Jane Dodds: We can have a little competition, I think, between ourselves in the Welsh liberals and Welsh Labour, because bank holidays were actually first introduced in 1871 by Sir John Lubbock, who was a Liberal MP who drafted the Bank Holidays Bill. However, I would pay tribute to the trade unions, who have absolutely embedded in our culture that sense that we need a work-life balance. COVID, as we've...
Jane Dodds: Will you take an intervention, please?
Jane Dodds: Thank you so much for doing that. In light of what you've said and in hearing what Huw Irranca-Davies has also said, I wonder if you and your colleagues will take the message back to your colleagues in Westminster that this is what we want and that you will be powering this through. Diolch.
Jane Dodds: Will the Minister make a statement on the impact of the school organisation code on schools in Mid and West Wales?
Jane Dodds: Good afternoon, Minister. I, like many in this Chamber, including my colleague Joyce, just want to focus on the situation in Ukraine. I don't know about people here, but I just can't think of anything at the moment apart from that tragic situation. And just one issue to raise, and that's around trafficking. On 6 March, reports emerged that sex traffickers were targeting single women and young...
Jane Dodds: Good afternoon, Minister, and may I thank you on International Women's Day for your leadership, in terms of developing this budget, and also your team as well for the constructive approach that you've taken in engaging with me around Welsh Liberal Democrat priorities? I want to talk Wales up. I've never heard, in this Siambr, Wales being talked down. I think it's quite shameful, actually,...
Jane Dodds: Thank you to Mike for tabling this debate. I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to participate.
Jane Dodds: I'd like to start with a very quick response to my colleague Mark Isherwood. And I really do understand his passion and the need for us to look back and to see what has worked and what hasn't. But I want to look forward. And this isn't, as we've heard, about the devolution of crime. This is about us looking at how we respond to it, and how we can prevent crime as well. This is about us in...
