Helen Mary Jones: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I’m grateful to the Conservative group for tabling this important motion today. Of course, as we move out, perhaps, past the first health crisis phase of the crisis that faces us all, Paul Davies is quite right to say that the economic crisis will come into sharper focus, and I’m sure that we will continue to debate this and to scrutinise the Minister as the...
Helen Mary Jones: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I want to begin by thanking all Members for their contributions to this debate. One thing that I know for certain is that many people who work in the sector are very worried and feel under a lot of pressure at the moment, and they will have been hugely reassured to hear the support and the strength of feeling about the importance of the arts from across the Chamber...
Helen Mary Jones: I'm very grateful, Dirprwy Lywydd, for the fact that we have been able to table this report today. We very much look forward to Members' contributions, and I look forward to responding later to the debate. Diolch yn fawr.
Helen Mary Jones: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. May I begin my contribution to this debate this afternoon by thanking the staff of our committee, the witnesses who contributed to this short inquiry, and my fellow committee members? I think they would all wish me to say that the staff have been exemplary through this very difficult period. I think, when the history of this time comes to be written, the excellent,...
Helen Mary Jones: Thank you for your answer, Minister. I'm sure that you'd agree with me that there are many factors in this crisis that actually risk exacerbating what is already a very serious child poverty crisis here in Wales, and was before COVID, and those include things like issues with access to childcare when women may not be able to go back to work if schools are not full time—everything from that...
Helen Mary Jones: The First Minister will be aware of the announcement this week by Castell Howell, a very important food business in my region, that they are consulting about redundancies. This is of course partly because they have depended on the hospitality sector as their customers. Will the First Minister commit today to ensuring that his Government and his officials work closely with the company to see...
Helen Mary Jones: 1. What discussions has the Minister had with local authorities about the role they can play in tackling child poverty after the COVID-19 crisis? OQ55324
Helen Mary Jones: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, and I'd like to thank all Members who have contributed. In the few minutes available to me to close this debate, I can't possibly respond to them all, but I do want to respond to some points. To the Conservative Members here, I would say to you: the most useful thing that you can do for your constituents now is to go to your Westminster Government and advocate for this...
Helen Mary Jones: We heard evidence on the economy committee a few days ago that our economy will never be the same. Some jobs will never return, and some jobs will not return in the same way. We can use this as a positive opportunity to refocus. We could look at the businesses that we have that can be reskilled and repurposed. If our aerospace industry doesn't recover quickly enough, could we use some of...
Helen Mary Jones: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd, and I'm very pleased and privileged to be able to move the motion tabled in the name of Siân Gwenllian, and commend it to the Senedd. It has become almost a cliché to talk about the fact that we are living in unprecedented times, and indeed we are. The comparison is sometimes made with world war two, but when our parents and grandparents were fighting that war they...
Helen Mary Jones: Thank you, Llywydd, and I'll be brief. I must admit to having forgotten that I'd got a second lot of questions. I do apologise. Can I just ask the Minister—? I agree with everything that she said about the fact that they've adapted brilliantly. But, I'm told that we've had a big upswing in people wanting to learn Welsh online, which is obviously really encouraging. I know that she's had to...
Helen Mary Jones: I do apologise. I'll end it there and I'll come back.
Helen Mary Jones: Thank you to the Minister for the statement.
Helen Mary Jones: If I can begin by wholeheartedly associating myself and my party with the Minister's comments about the situation in the United States of America, and express how very pleased I am that she has felt able to write on behalf of Wales as a nation and express our concerns. The Minister's right, of course, when she says that no nation, sadly, is exempt from this kind of prejudice and...
Helen Mary Jones: I'm grateful to the Minister for his answer to my questions. Thinking of safe return to work and the Minister talking about need for such a return to be done with compassion and understanding from businesses, can the Minister confirm this afternoon that those who are shielding at home, not because they are vulnerable themselves but because their family members are vulnerable, can he confirm...
Helen Mary Jones: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'd like to thank the Minister very much for his statement, and just to say how much I welcome his emphasis on safety when it comes to opening up the economy. I hope that, across the Chamber, we would all agree with that. Of course, the reopening of the criteria for the economic resilience fund is welcome, and I'm particularly pleased to say that for businesses not...
Helen Mary Jones: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. If I can take you, Minister, to post-16 education—
Helen Mary Jones: How's that?
Helen Mary Jones: Thank you. Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. With regard to—I'll take you to post-16 education, if I may, Minister. With regard to the arrangements for colleges of further education, can you confirm that some of those students who will be able to return will be students taking vocational courses who will need to take practical examinations in order to be able to complete their qualifications? If I...
Helen Mary Jones: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. So, I'm very sorry, Minister, but I am unsilenced again. [Laughter.] If I may take you back to the issue with regard to shielding that was raised earlier with the First Minister by my colleague Delyth Jewell, I hope that the Welsh Government will be able to provide the 32 organisations that have written to you concerned about the way that announcement was made and...
