Llyr Gruffydd: Thank you very much, Llywydd. Yes, omicron is casting a long shadow over Wales this Christmas, and although we can't predict exactly what the implications of the variant will be for the NHS and for public health, we are already seeing its impact, for example, on the hospitality sector, as you recognised earlier. So, to expand on your previous response, can you explain why you, as finance...
Llyr Gruffydd: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I thank the Minister for her statement. Just to pick up on some of the previous comments on a finance Bill or an annual budget Bill, I still feel as I did when I chaired the Finance Committee in the previous Senedd that that is something I would certainly want us as a Senedd to move towards. I accept the Minister's comments on how quickly we...
Llyr Gruffydd: Thank you for your answer, First Minister. I have to say, there are serious concerns being expressed to me that the service is unable to cope with the volume of demand. The sense among nursing professionals is that the service is being overrun, with patients having to wait hours for a basic response. I've been told, for example, that, in the past few weeks, calls have gone unanswered, and one...
Llyr Gruffydd: 7. Will the First Minister make a statement on the future of the 111 service in north Wales? OQ57392
Llyr Gruffydd: The culture of resistance to scrutiny, to change and challenge led, of course, to Betsi's hierarchy refusing to release this report, despite, even, the requests of the information commissioner. Grieving relatives had to wait unnecessarily due to a bureaucracy that didn't put people first—it put its own interests and its own reputation first, and, of course, in doing so, tarnished that...
Llyr Gruffydd: Thank you for the opportunity to once again discuss this issue. We've had a number of opportunities over recent weeks and months, and indeed recent years, to discuss the scandal of the Hergest unit and the scandal of not publishing the Holden report in full. And every time I get up to speak about this issue, I still can't believe that the board tried to evade accountability in the way that...
Llyr Gruffydd: Thank you for that response. I'm a very regular user of train services. In my 10 years here in the Senedd, I've driven down some twice a year. I use the train almost without exception, but I have used the train three times in the last three weeks. Three weeks ago, I was two hours late getting back to north Wales. A fortnight ago, I was caught up in the difficulty and shambles of train...
Llyr Gruffydd: 5. What assessment has the Minister made of the quality of rail services in Wales? OQ57338
Llyr Gruffydd: In order to assess the real implications of a land value tax, we need more data, of course. That's become clear in some of the work undertaken by the Bangor University report. The first recommendation in that report was to go about gathering the necessary data in a more meaningful way, perhaps. So, can I ask you what work the Government has done or intends to do to gather that data in order...
Llyr Gruffydd: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Look, we have it in our power in this Chamber to radically reform what is one of the most regressive taxes that we have, actually. It's a legacy of the Thatcher era. It's grossly unfair, because it levies almost four times as much as a proportion of wealth on the poorest as it does the richest. Now, that's not something that we should tolerate, and that is something...
Llyr Gruffydd: I asked whether the First Minister agreed with me.
Llyr Gruffydd: I didn't understand that there was a time limit.
Llyr Gruffydd: The Tories are clearly pretty exercised by the co-operation agreement, and I wonder what the First Minister's assessment is of why that may be. Because we all remember, as you referred to, the Tory £1 billion bung—is it that we've shown the proper way of negotiating a parliamentary agreement with full transparency in terms of the workings of this agreement that you think that they're so...
Llyr Gruffydd: Thank you, First Minister, for the statement. I welcome this expanded and reformed programme of government to reflect those areas where Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Government have been able to find that common ground where we can collaborate. And, of course, we've kept an unflinching focus in those discussions on securing the well-being of the people of Wales and transforming the lives of the...
Llyr Gruffydd: Well, thank you very much, Llywydd. It's clear that Plaid Cymru has arrived, because the Conservatives spend more time discussing the Plaid Cymru manifesto and policies than they discuss their own policies, and again that underlines, I think, how increasingly irrelevant the Conservatives are becoming in this place. I'm pleased that Sam read the Plaid Cymru manifesto. I hope he read the rest...
Llyr Gruffydd: Well, we'll look forward very much to hearing that date. The tragedy is that we've lost years to all intents and purposes. We've been talking about a deposit-return scheme for Wales for almost a decade, and we're still talking about such a scheme for Wales. Now, you decided, of course, to run a joint consultation process with the UK Government. What if the UK Government's ambition in terms of...
Llyr Gruffydd: 1. When does the First Minister expect Wales to have an operational deposit-return scheme? OQ57293
Llyr Gruffydd: Thank you for that response. You said that it was a matter for the board. Well, your health Minister, who was Deputy Minister for mental health at the time, confirmed to me a year ago that she had read the Holden report. Now, that was 12 months ago, when the board was still in special measures, and still under the direct management of your Government. So, why then didn't you insist that the...
Llyr Gruffydd: 8. What discussions has the Welsh Government had with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board following the publication of the Holden report? OQ57257
Llyr Gruffydd: Diolch, Llywydd. My friend Abdul Khan is something of an institution. For the past 17 years, he has been a county councillor in the town of Colwyn Bay in the North Wales region, and this year he has become the first Bangladeshi ever in Wales to chair a county council, when he was appointed chair of Conwy County Borough Council. He is also a successful businessman, a long-standing restaurant...
