Carwyn Jones: Yes, that’s right, and that will be part of the public health Bill. It’s important that any nonsensical obstacles are done away with. But we know, of course, that pharmacies play a vitally important role in ensuring that people receive advice without having to go to see their general practitioner, and also, of course, we would wish to extend the services available from pharmacies...
Carwyn Jones: I will join, of course, the Member in congratulating the Member for Aberavon. I am not sure that harmony will reign in his house over this evening given what was revealed to us in terms of information. But he’s right: the challenge that faces us in the future is, as people get older—yes, many of those people will be fitter when they’re older, but, inevitably, people get a number of...
Carwyn Jones: I’m grateful to the Member for this question, because they are the unsung heroes of the health service in many ways. They work in the community and in primary care, and, of course, they deliver a lot of preventative care, which is difficult to measure in itself, because how do you measure something that prevents something that would have happened in the future? Of course, they help to deal...
Carwyn Jones: I have to say to the leader of the opposition, I had experience, as did my constituents, of this when the town that I represent was branded as some kind of suicide capital, where we had predatory journalists arriving from London who were trying to question young people outside the local college and trying to suggest to them that it was better to be dead than to live in the area. Those are the...
Carwyn Jones: Well, first of all, mindfulness was mentioned in the Welsh Labour manifesto as something that could be looked at. When we talk about the health of a child up to seven years old, that must include all types of health, including mental health as well. That is something that will be taken into consideration when developing the programme. The second point is this: she’s right, we do see...
Carwyn Jones: With child and adolescent mental health service, we’ve invested heavily—£6.6 million into the service. Demand outstripped supply, that much is true, which is why, of course, we’ve matched that with the extra investment that has been put in. It means, of course, that the numbers waiting and the times that youngsters are waiting have gone down.
Carwyn Jones: It’s absolutely essential that the area gets better treatment; that’s why we’re investing in health facilities. He needs to go and talk to people, for example, on Deeside, where a brand-new health facility was opened there, or people, indeed, in Port Talbot, in Baglan, with the Neath Port Talbot Hospital—the brand-new health centre there—or Builth Wells, with the brand-new health...
Carwyn Jones: He seems to be making a case for the establishment of a district general hospital in the area if he says that travel is a problem. Yes, it is. We know that travel in some parts of Wales means that people have to travel further than normal, but that’s because they get a better service than a district general hospital. What we have, of course, is Ysbyty Alltwen, which is about, I think, 7...
Carwyn Jones: Well, first of all, we have been investing, as we will in Blaenau Ffestiniog, in brand-new health centres across the whole of Wales. Simply keeping old buildings going for the sake of it is not how we see the future of the health service. It’s hugely important that Blaenau and other communities have access to the most up-to-date, modern facilities possible, and there are examples of that...
Carwyn Jones: Well, he mentions the budgetary issues. Again, they will be part of the budget when it’s published for all Members to see. We have our target of 20,000. The Minister will be explaining to the Assembly how that target will be achieved. We have achieved those targets in the past. We stand on our record. He talks of a trilogy. The second part of the trilogy, of course, was the defeat and...
Carwyn Jones: This will be examined, of course, when the budget is produced, and, as part of the promises we made to the people of Wales back in May, we intend to continue the situation where health inequalities close. What we’ve seen, of course, with the bedroom tax and with cuts in welfare benefits is that inequality has risen in Wales and we will do what we can to combat that. I’m grateful to him...
Carwyn Jones: Yes.
Carwyn Jones: Of course, working with local authorities, we’re able to investigate, for example, the provision of more brown signs. We see those going up across Wales. It is right to say that we are working on making sure that we get more capture of the visitors that are travelling along the A55 to Ireland, many of whom have said to me in the past, ‘Well, we’ve travelled to Ireland that way but not...
Carwyn Jones: Yes, of course. In response to the point I made earlier on, we want to encourage tourism to all parts of Wales, not just the areas that have traditionally been the areas that have attracted most tourists. And we’ll continue to look to provide investment to improve those facilities for visitors in the years to come.
Carwyn Jones: He makes a strong case for the area that he represents, which I appreciate. We do look, of course, to promote all areas of Wales, including areas that traditionally have not been seen as areas that have traditionally attracted tourists. I can say that expenditure by staying visitors in Wales in 2015 was over £2.3 billion, well above the target that we set in place. We know that tourism is a...
Carwyn Jones: I don’t know what he did when he was deputy leader of Cardiff, because, of course, the council does have a responsibility, not for the railway station, I accept, but certainly for Central Square, now being developed, of course, by a Labour-led council in Cardiff. So, the new bus station is being built and the city has a proper gateway. He raises an important point about central railway...
Carwyn Jones: The Visit Wales website does list a wide range of events being held throughout Wales, including many in the Valleys, and the annual Nos Galan road race in Mountain Ash is listed in Visit Wales’s main annual tourism brochure, ‘This is Wales 2016’. She asked, of course, as well about accessibility. The Visit Wales website does include a filter for the provision of disabled visitors to...
Carwyn Jones: [Inaudible]—have been the Welsh-medium education strategies that we expect local authorities to produce, some of them are more advanced than others, but it is hugely important that a proper pathway is identified by local authorities to ensure that access to Welsh as a language to be learnt or, indeed, to be taught through is as available in Wales as possible.
Carwyn Jones: Our tourism strategy, ‘Strategy for Tourism 2013—2020: Partnership for Growth’, sets out our priorities for developing and promoting Wales’s tourism offer both at home and overseas.
Carwyn Jones: There are a number of things. First, of course, this is part of the strategy in terms of looking at ways and means of supporting and promoting the language in the digital sphere. It’s also very important to change the behaviours of young people. We have been funding certain Urdd projects over the past few years so that they can develop apps and so on to ensure that children and young people...
