Mr Simon Thomas: You will know, Cabinet Secretary, that the decision to reopen the scallop fishery in Cardigan bay was very much predicated on the work that Bangor University had done on the sea bed conditions, and you said at the time, I think, that you'd want to maintain an ongoing monitoring of sea bed conditions to ensure that reopening the fishery didn't have an adverse effect and that it was, as you...
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you for that. I look forward to the launch of the scheme, but I look forward even more to seeing, in two years' time, young people having responsibility for holdings for the first time, and showing the way forward for agriculture in future. I’m very confident that the young farmers of Wales have the ideas to do that. I will conclude on another aspect of exiting the European Union,...
Mr Simon Thomas: I’m grateful for that. Of course, the issue of the workforce from the rest of the EU is an issue of concern, but it’s also true to say that we should be using every tool in our possession to assist young people in Wales to succeed in agriculture. You will know, of course, that we came to an agreement on £6 million for the young entrants scheme, and the interest in this scheme has been...
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you very much, Llywydd. The latest figures on the agricultural workforce by the Office for National Statistics, which were published this month, show that 53,500 workers work in the sector in Wales, and, with less than five per cent of the population of the UK, 11.5 per cent of all agricultural workers are here in Wales. Therefore, I think it’s fair to say, as we exit the European...
Mr Simon Thomas: 1. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on children's services in Powys in the wake of a report by the Mid and West Wales Safeguarding Board regarding the death of a child in the care of the County Council? 142
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you very much, Llywydd. As the previous debate has already had two Chairs reporting back, I thought I’d add some variety by speaking on the financial resolution rather than the main debate, so that you haven't had three Chairs speaking, and therefore allowing more members of committees to contribute. I’m very grateful to the Minister for outlining her response and that she’ll be...
Mr Simon Thomas: If I may welcome the statement by the Cabinet Secretary today in saying that I am a little disappointed, of course, that he hasn’t selected the single-use plastics tax, but I do welcome the fact that he will use this new process to test a new tax—we can call it 'taxco' to correspond with the LCO, perhaps. But we, here, do support the fact that this process is to be tested. As he said in...
Mr Simon Thomas: Could I ask for a couple of things from the business manager? First of all, is it possible to have a statement or at least an indication of the timetable of an announcement regarding the ward 10 project in Withybush hospital? This is the project that a young girl called Elly has been fundraising for—Elly's flag appeal. I've done a 90-second statement on her appeal here, and I think a lot...
Mr Simon Thomas: There’s one blessing, First Minister—no farmer has time in the middle of the day to watch these proceedings. When you were over in Ireland recently, I don’t know whether you had an opportunity to buy anything in a shop in Ireland, but if you did, you would have received a receipt, and on the receipt it would have said what percentage of the food and drink produce had been produced in...
Mr Simon Thomas: Will the First Minister make a statement on the terms of reference for Paul Bowen QC's inquiry which was called for in November 2017?
Mr Simon Thomas: Then UKIP wouldn't have a Member on the blinking committees.
Mr Simon Thomas: I thank the Member for giving way. Just to be very clear to the Member, the budget only puts in reserve the capital for this funding. There would need to be a supplementary budget and a vote on the supplementary budget to allow this to go ahead, and on that I look forward to joining him in the lobby, as they used to say, to vote down the money for this project.
Mr Simon Thomas: I will give way on that point, yes.
Mr Simon Thomas: I think we'd be open to re-examining the evidence around that, and I've got my own personal views that the blue route, which was chosen 10 years ago now, as an alternative to a brand-new M4 and by a Plaid Cymru transport Minister in a coalition Government, it has to be said—. We now have to re-examine in light of the new appraisal tool that the Welsh Government has for transport as well...
Mr Simon Thomas: The original Adam Smith, of course, is a lot closer to the Adam Price that we have here, rather than the Adam Smith Institute, which is a completely different kettle of fish, I think. I very much welcome this debate and the welcome from the parties so far that's been given to the principle of having a substantive vote on such a large expenditure. I want to approach the debate from the point...
Mr Simon Thomas: Will the Member give way?
Mr Simon Thomas: I agree with the Member on what he said so far, and certainly the principle in taking—you know, spending those sums of money should be taken here, and not left to the Executive on its own. Does he take or have any acceptance of the evidence that the costs are more likely, plus VAT, to be closer to £2 billion? And where does he think the line starts to be drawn on a project like this?
Mr Simon Thomas: And I think, finally, Deputy Presiding Officer, it really is time to ensure that this Assembly is transformed into a Welsh Parliament in name, and not just in name, but in composition and status as well. This is because of the history that we've had. Make no mistake: giving Wales an assembly instead of a parliament was quite deliberate; we were intentionally shackled from the start. No...
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you to the Llywydd for introducing this debate today, and to Laura McAllister and her team for such thorough work. This, of course, is a debate that we've had before. I remember going on behalf of Plaid Cymru to give evidence to the Richard commission about expanding the Assembly at that time, when it was recommended that we should move—even 10 years ago—to an Assembly of 80...
Mr Simon Thomas: I thank the Counsel General for his response and I agree entirely with him that the fact that a number of cases have failed because the disclosure procedures on both sides—well, one side in particular—have failed endangers the way that we deal with rape cases and sexual offences in Wales, and undermines confidence in the system. That’s not something that I want to see, and I’m sure...
