Rhun ap Iorwerth: Perhaps the Minister should be trying to find out why those adaptations have been declining and why the equipment has not been going out at rates at which it has in the past because that all has an effect and a knock-on further down the line within our health and social care system. Let me draw your attention to another service that is vastly underappreciated—that of unpaid carers. Last...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: We know, of course, what percentage of our budget is spent on the NHS, but the same attention or prestige is not given to social care budgets. In England, of course, we know that the Conservatives have cut the funding available for social care and the impact of that, I think most would agree, has been clear in terms of increasing the pressure on hospitals. Here, in Wales, the Welsh Government...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you, Llywydd. My questions are also to the Minister. Pressures on emergency departments in our hospitals have an impact on both sides of Offa’s dyke and have been in the headlines again, and there are many reasons for those problems. But, I want to concentrate on the role of social care. Does the Minister agree that good social care services play an important role in preventing people...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Last Wednesday, the National Assembly for Wales made a very clear statement that it’s our democratically expressed wish in this place for the National Grid to seek alternative methods of making new electricity connections in Wales instead of putting in place new pylons for any new developments here. That’s particularly pertinent to us in Ynys Môn, of course, where we face seeing a new...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Does the First Minister agree that what the latest figures on accident and emergency waiting times published last week—especially those waiting more than 12 hours—what they show is that it’s a year-round capacity issue that we face with, on average, around 3,000 patients waiting longer than 12 hours month after month, after month, after month? Isn’t that evidence of a systemic problem...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 6. Will the First Minister make a statement on the National Grid's plans in Ynys Môn? OAQ(5)0399(FM) [W]
Rhun ap Iorwerth: And Wales?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: One of the points raised by Simon Thomas was that it’s the agglomeration effect that they’ve taken into account in Denmark in saying, ‘Right. Let’s underground a lot of these cables because of the need for investment in renewables’.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: You’re certainly right, I agree, and Ofgem is key. I’ll come on to some of the deliberations that I have had with Ofgem in a minute. It’s crucial that we move, as we’re hopefully going to be doing in the Assembly today, to a situation where there is an assumption in favour, through Ofgem allowing that, of undergrounding. I’ll go on. Mae cost ychwanegol tanddaearu, wrth gwrs, yn...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: [Continues.]—the cost should— Fe wnaf mewn eiliad. [Continues.]—be borne by all energy users. I’ve seen estimates that the cost of undergrounding would be less than 1p a week for every electricity user in Britain over the lifespan of that link. That’s the truth. Fe ildiaf.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thanks to the contributors so far. Anglesey and its representatives are unanimously against the National Grid’s plan to put a line of pylons across the island. I, the county council, the MP, the community councils and thousands of residents have been consistent in our opposition to the grid’s plans, and there have been hardly any positive responses from the grid to that chorus of voices....
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I understand the question that you asked, but you are unfair in suggesting that we are dismissing the work that has been done on the fiscal framework. The question that has been asked today by Leanne Wood, amongst others, is: why on earth was that commendable work on the fiscal framework tied in to what is otherwise a set of powers that is a retraction in terms of the powers that we have? And...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Yes.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Nothing would give me more pleasure than being able to vote today for the implementation of a Wales Bill that would empower the people of Wales, that would enable this Assembly to mature further as a Parliament for our nation, and that would give the Welsh Government the necessary tools to stabilise and strengthen our economy, to create a healthier Wales, and to strengthen our education...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I certainly welcome this development. I’m pleased that through both deliberations following the election leading to the compact and in more recent discussions on the budget we have been able, working with the Government, to make sure that we have this package that will, hopefully, make a difference to patients in Wales. I’ll make a note that it is important to await the result of the IPFR...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I’m very pleased that we now have a strategy that we can give due attention to through the consultation, to strengthen it and to build on what we have before us, by including the experiences of those people who genuinely know what needs to be done, namely the families of those who have dementia. I know that the majority of us here in the Chamber have heard plenty of heartbreaking stories of...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Cabinet Secretary, nobody wants to speak of a crisis in the NHS. It’s worrying for patients and it’s demoralising for our excellent staff. But you’ll be aware that the Red Cross described the situation in England’s A&E as a humanitarian crisis. You’ll also be aware that your party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has described that as a national scandal, and demanded the Prime Minister...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: With emergency departments in our hospitals in crisis—the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s words, rather than my words—would the First Minister agree that the erosion that there has been in the percentage of NHS funding provided to primary care and the stress that that places on our GP surgeries causes problems for our A&E departments? And does the First Minister agree, therefore,...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement regarding comments made by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine that ‘emergency care in Wales is in a state of crisis’? EAQ(5)0097(HWS)
Rhun ap Iorwerth: There’s no doubt that eviction and having to live in temporary accommodation, as 792 families are currently doing, is a traumatic experience for a child. The impact of homelessness on children begins at birth. Children who are born to mothers who have been in B&B accommodation for some time are more likely to have a low birth weight. They are also more likely to lose out on their...
