Mr Simon Thomas: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I'd like to thank all Members who've participated in this debate. It's been a serious debate, and I think the tenor of the debate, those who supported the action and those who don't support the action, has reflected well on the Assembly and the need to debate these matters on our hand that are before us. Can I just start with the Government's view, just to get that...
Mr Simon Thomas: I don't know if the Member was going to attend to this point, which—. He just referred to the vote in 2013, I think it was, and I commend David Cameron for calling that vote, and for giving Parliament the ability to decide this. Does he feel that the Prime Minister was right to take this action? He agrees with the action—I accept his point on that—but does he feel the Prime Minister's...
Mr Simon Thomas: May I thank the Commissioner for her response and for responding in Welsh? Environmental jargon isn’t great in any language, I accept that, but I’m extremely grateful to you for it. May I congratulate the Commission on two things, first of all, for gaining the ISO, that environmental standard, and secondly on the news that electric vehicle charging points have now been installed? I look...
Mr Simon Thomas: I welcome the steps that have been taken so far, and there's some encouraging news on the reduction of single-use plastic in the Assembly. I wanted to ask what further steps can be done as a major purchaser in Cardiff and south Wales, and as a leader in this. Is the Commission talking to its suppliers? Because as well as the single-use plastic that we use, it's the supply chain that provides...
Mr Simon Thomas: 'That's normal. Plaid Cymru Ministers, as Simon Thomas will be able to tell you, did exactly the same when they were in Government.'
Mr Simon Thomas: I want to make it clear that I, as a special adviser, never contacted any public body to ask for the content or the nature of correspondence with Assembly Members, and that wasn’t part of the culture of the One Wales Government Ministers to my information. So, the First Minister’s claim is inaccurate.
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you, Llywydd. I’d like to raise a point of order under Standing Orders, particularly Standing Order 13.9 on conduct in the Chamber. In responding to Angela Burns and then Adam Price yesterday, the First Minister referred twice to myself and my work as a special adviser to Plaid Cymru Ministers in 2007-10. He stated, regarding the actions described by Angela Burns, and I quote:
Mr Simon Thomas: I welcome the fact that a statement has been made by the Counsel General today, but I have to say this: a pledge was made by a Minister of the Crown on the floor of the House of Commons, before Christmas, in the middle of December, that this would be sorted. And here we are, the Lady Boys of Bangkok have reached Cardiff Bay, as they do every spring, and we haven’t found a solution to this...
Mr Simon Thomas: I thank the Cabinet Secretary—I'm not sure what she is when she does this, leader of the house or Cabinet Secretary, but she's a member of the Cabinet, anyway. Thank you for that reply. I really struggle to understand how we can actually move on many parts of rural Wales to the automated future, the robotics future that we've been talking about in Welsh public life only today if we don't...
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you for that update, Cabinet Secretary, and I’m sure we’re grateful to the WRA for their work, and for what appears to be a successful start, as he says, to a new period in the constitutional history of Wales. You will be aware, of course, that these things are a process rather than an event. As part of the process, you’ve also set out in the taxation work programme some ideas on...
Mr Simon Thomas: 2. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the implementation of the new devolved taxes since they came into force on 1 April 2018? OAQ51976
Mr Simon Thomas: 1. Will the Leader of the House make a statement on the availability of mobile phone reception in Mid and West Wales? OAQ51977
Mr Simon Thomas: 3. What work is the Commission undertaking to reduce carbon emissions? OAQ51979
Mr Simon Thomas: May I say at the outset that Plaid Cymru will be supporting this Order today to keep the legislation in effect? The reason we’re discussing this today is that there is a sunset clause in the original legislation. The reason there was a sunset clause was because it was passed as emergency legislation—we just had experience before Easter of that. It’s slightly ironic in this context...
Mr Simon Thomas: A final point that the Minister has dealt with is the needs of a resource-efficient economy, on which I share her objectives, certainly. We do need to see the producer responsibility report as soon as possible. We need to understand, as well, how the Government is now going to react to the new infrastructure, if you like, around a deposit-return scheme. We've discussed the possibilities or...
Mr Simon Thomas: May I welcome the tone of the Minister’s statement today? The principles contained within it are robust, and I certainly couldn’t argue with them, but I also have to say that I had hoped to hear specific proposals in this statement in terms of how the Government is going to tackle the issues and the challenges set out by the Minister. Unfortunately, we’re still in a position where we...
Mr Simon Thomas: I think we're certainly in for some interesting days in the business for the Assembly, but I'll concentrate on a couple of issues that have emerged over Easter, if I may, and ask first of all if it's possible to have a statement from the Government on the issue of Caribbean and Commonwealth immigrants here in Wales? We've seen over Easter stories emerge of what's been described as the...
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you, Llywydd. The fact that the Irish Government is willing to pay and to transport animal fodder is having an impact on the market across the British isles, and it is having an impact on the markets and putting prices up for farmers in Wales. I think that is the argument, and the thing that's become clear because of the wet spring that we've had. What happens as a result of that, of...
Mr Simon Thomas: I do note that this is a real practical threat. This is not some kind of constitutional argument as some have made out over the last couple of days. This is about people's daily lives: how you farm, how we look after the environment, how we look after our social protection, how we live together as communities is intimately connected with how we agree to live together on these islands....
Mr Simon Thomas: I would like to thank everyone who was involved in the drafting of this Bill. I’d like to thank the Government and Government officials for many constructive conversations. Plaid Cymru and the Government have agreed on a number of areas in this context, and it was a matter of discussing how to deal with them on the face of the Bill. There was one area where we didn’t reach agreement, and...
