Rhun ap Iorwerth: 5. Will the Minister provide an update on efforts to safeguard and create jobs on the former Anglesey Aluminium site? OQ58028
Rhun ap Iorwerth: It really is hard to over-emphasise the importance of the site. Anglesey Aluminium provided very good jobs for thousands of people over four decades. We have to ensure that sustainable economic activity—a new era of good jobs, if you like—is brought to the site. Quite rightly, the priority of all of us after the collapse of Orthios was to support those who'd lost their jobs, and that...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd, and to everyone who has made such thoughtful comments today, and thank you for that commitment by the Minister. I'm pleased that we as a Senedd can express in such a unified way our sympathy and our solidarity with the people of Ukraine, as we note 90 years since the Holodomor, which is called the 'great famine' very often, but, of course, the use of that word...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 'What I saw that morning...was inexpressibly horrible. On a battlefield men die quickly, they fight back, they are sustained by fellowship and a sense of duty. Here I saw people dying in solitude by slow degrees, dying hideously, without the excuse of sacrifice for a cause. They had been trapped and left to starve, each in his home, by a political decision made in a far-off capital around...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: But, of course, this wasn't a story that could be told publicly. The Soviet press, as we've heard, denied that any famine had taken place at all. Unfortunately, there were plenty in the western press who were willing to believe that. There was one man, of course—we’ve heard his name time and time again today—who tried to draw attention to the genuine situation, and that was Gareth...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 'May I...congratulate the Soviet Foreign Office on its skill in concealing the true situation in the USSR? Moscow is not Russia, and the sight of well-fed people there tends to hide the real Russia.'
Rhun ap Iorwerth: The Soviet Government denied the existence of this famine until the end of the 1980s, but it’s been seared on the minds of the people of Ukraine for 90 years. It’s important that we remember too. To conclude, the sadness beyond words is that this isn't something that has been laid to rest forever in history. Here we are in 2022. Last week, an official of the United Nations said that the...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: There's quite a simple motion before us today. Myself and my colleagues on these benches agree that the Welsh Government doesn't have an adequate plan to tackle NHS waiting lists in Wales and the backlogs in Wales. We've seen the plan, over the last few weeks, and there are, of course, positive elements. One, that we have a plan at last, having waited far too long for it, and there are plans...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: The increasing incidence of alcohol abuse is very concerning, and it's something that each and every one of us should be concerned about. It's believed that high-risk drinkers have been driving the recent increase in alcohol consumption, and that has led to the highest level of alcohol abuse in 20 years. We know of the damaging impacts of alcohol abuse on our physical health, as well as our...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thanks for the statement. I welcome the focus on the potential for ports to benefit from the next generation of offshore energy generation. I've spoken with developers like BP, for example, encouraging investment in Holyhead as an offshore wind hub. The Minister will have heard me many times encouraging an honest debate about free ports and the need, for example, for the UK Government to...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I didn't intend to speak, because I'm certainly happy to support this regulation, but I want to respond to the comment made by the health spokesperson of the Conservatives. I think it is completely sensible to use legislation in this restricted way. We see around us, even in this Chamber, how the use of face masks is changing and developing and is organic, and people make decisions about...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Llywydd. Thank you for every contribution to this important debate today and for the Minister's response. This is an area that has been neglected for far too long, and it's remarkable that it has been neglected for so long. There has been, I think, some sort of awakening—and I'm not talking about Wales specifically there, but more generally. I note the work in England,...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: The gender gap in heart disease we've heard about today. It's costing women's lives. And that groundbreaking report in 2019, 'Bias and biology: The heart attack gender gap', by the British Heart Foundation, really opened my eyes to what was happening, or what was not happening, in the treatment of heart disease in women: heart attacks in women being misdiagnosed as anxiety or panic attacks....
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'm very pleased to be able to contribute to this debate, and I'm very grateful that it has been proposed. Mental health is an issue that we discuss often in the Senedd now, and that's good to see, as opposed to the situation in the past where mental health had next to no attention and was swept under the carpet. But, as I said, it's good to have an...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Serious mental illnesses, SMIs, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, often first develop between the ages of 14 and 25. It's a critical stage for young people, because of the neurological, biological and cognitive changes of adolescence to young adulthood. It's a time of big change in their lives, reaching major educational milestones. We often talk, don't we, about the need for early...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: We've spoken a great deal about health inequalities recently. We spoke about them in the context of women's health a few minutes ago. The inequalities that people with serious mental illness face are very significant. They're more likely to face physical health issues and they die, on average, 15 to 20 years younger. It's estimated that two out of three people with serious mental illnesses...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 8. What steps is the Welsh Government taking to protect community interests in the planning process? OQ58114
Rhun ap Iorwerth: May I draw the First Minister's attention to the Parc Del Fryn housing estate in Brynteg in my constituency? It's a development I've highlighted many times over the years, and it's attracted attention again now as more homes are built. It's a wonderful village—I'm not sure if the First Minister is familiar with it—and these look like ideal homes for young couples to buy or rent for the...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: This is a plan that highlights the key issues, the important issues, the challenges, of course, facing people with learning disabilities, their families and paid carers. I think it's fair to say it's hard to disagree with the aspirations, but where detail is lacking in elements of implementation, I think it's really important that we push Government for those details. One of the elements...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 5. What steps is the Welsh Government taking to respond to the cost crisis in agriculture? OQ58105
