Jane Dodds: Good afternoon, Minister. I wonder if I could request two statements, please, Trefnydd. The first statement is from the Minister for Health and Social Services on what steps the Minister is taking in relation to international GP trainees. The Welsh Government supports around 160 trainee GPs a year, and I understand that NHS Wales has indicated that 80 trainees—half that cohort—will not be...
Jane Dodds: Thank you also to Sam Rowlands for joining us. Childcare is the most frequently cited barrier for women in work. It is a huge cost for working families, and it's a barrier for parents looking to re-enter the workforce, as we've heard from Laura Anne. That's before you consider the complexity of the arrangements and eligibility criteria that parents and carers need to navigate, as Jenny...
Jane Dodds: May I thank fellow committee members for their work, and all of those organisations who gave evidence to us as part of our work?
Jane Dodds: Thank you, Llywydd, and thank you, Minister, and thank you to Russell for asking this question.
Jane Dodds: It's just a very short point. Many residents in south Powys attend Nevill Hall Hospital in Aneurin Bevan health board in Abergavenny. In the statement last night from Aneurin Bevan on the Grange, there was a recommendation that patients are diverted to other hospitals like Nevill Hall. I'm sure this has been considered, but could you just reassure us that additional support is being offered...
Jane Dodds: Thank you very much, Llywydd, and good afternoon, Minister.
Jane Dodds: Diolch, Weinidog. You will be aware of the decision of Powys County Council to close rural schools in the area, which has been a devastating blow for many communities. I am increasingly concerned about the impact this so-called transformation programme will have on Welsh-medium education in Powys, so thank you for your response. The commitment of many of these rural schools to Welsh education...
Jane Dodds: Diolch, Llywydd, and good afternoon, Deputy Minister. If I could continue the theme of renewable energy.
Jane Dodds: Diolch yn fawr iawn. Last year I had the opportunity to visit Hafod y Llan hydroelectric project, the National Trust's first large-scale renewable energy project. On my visit, the project team highlighted that the financial opportunities available to small schemes like theirs in Scotland would really help boost the sector here in Wales. The Scottish Government established the Community and...
Jane Dodds: 5. What support is the Welsh Government providing to small and community-owned renewable energy projects? OQ57877
Jane Dodds: 9. Will the Minister make a statement on the impact of recently announced school closures in Powys on the Welsh Government's targets to expand Welsh-medium education? OQ57888
Jane Dodds: Good afternoon, Deputy Minister. I echo many of the statements that have been made around the process. We find ourselves on a hamster wheel around LCMs, and the timescale that we've been given—yet again—is absolutely abhorrent, and absolutely not what this Senedd should be about. Many of us, I know, and that would include the Ministers, find themselves in a really difficult position, and...
Jane Dodds: Good afternoon, Minister. May I also thank you, as has Mark, for the work that you and your team have done, and for staying in touch with me? My specific issue is around Ukrainians who are poor—those who perhaps don't have access to a car, don't have access to fuel, don't have access to resources, don't have a way of actually even getting across the border, or even getting to a place where...
Jane Dodds: This is an issue that I know many have had raised with them across the Siambr. Many have seen a doubling in the price of heating oil in less than six months. Earlier this month, the UK Conservative Minister of State for Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change, Greg Hands, said that the UK Government believes that the open market for the supply of heating oil in the UK provides the best...
Jane Dodds: Thank you, First Minister, for your response.
Jane Dodds: Good afternoon, Minister. I wonder if I could ask for two statements please, with the first statement from the Minister for Education and Welsh Language about financial support for small and rural schools. Unions this week have raised the concerns that I raised during the budget process about the removal of the SRSG—the small and rural schools grant—and that the additional funding...
Jane Dodds: 6. What discussions has the Welsh Government had with the UK Government regarding putting in place protections against price rises for people across rural Wales who are reliant on heating oil and LPG? OQ57879
Jane Dodds: Great to hear as well, Minister, that you're willing to consider Mike Hedges's suggestion around how we have a museum of churches, how we can have a walking trail, a travel trail, of churches and chapels across Wales. And I do hope that we'll be able to move forward on those suggestions. I would like to thank Mike Hedges for introducing this debate today. It's made us really come alive in the...
Jane Dodds: Diolch, Deputy Presiding Officer. Where else would you hear from the sons of two ministers, in Sam Rowlands and Mabon ap Gwynfor, the mention, specifically, of 48 chapels and churches and other religious buildings, and two brilliant sayings, one from Alun Davies—I loved that—that he heard about people preaching in English and praying in Welsh, and also, from Delyth Jewell, that churches...
Jane Dodds: Can I thank Janet Finch-Saunders for this debate as well? And I want to stand up, just as Samuel Kurtz did, for my species. I am the species champion for the pink sea fan—another name for it is the warty gorgonian, but I much prefer pink sea fan. They are a type of coral, and they don't have to be pink—they can be orange or they can be white. Most pink sea fans can grow to a height of...
