Helen Mary Jones: I'm sure the First Minister will agree with me that it's slightly curious that the Conservative Party always talk about tax as if it was something dreadful. If we didn't pay taxes we wouldn't have public services. We all know that we need investment in our public services going forward. In response to Mike Hedges, the First Minister mentioned the air passenger duty and the aggregates levy. I...
Helen Mary Jones: I'm grateful to the Minister for his answer. Of course, he'll be aware that it's almost a year to the day since the Schaeffler automotive factory in Llanelli announced that it would be closing with the loss of 220 jobs—and not just jobs, but good-quality jobs, jobs that could sustain families productively. The Minister will not need me to tell him there are real concerns in the sector about...
Helen Mary Jones: Well, I'm slightly disappointed, Llywydd, that the Minister didn't hear what I said, because I said that I very much hope that this would be successful, but I think there are concerns. The Minister has to acknowledge that there are concerns. Aston Martin is saddled with a $1 billion debt, it finished last year with just £138 million in cash, and that doesn't sound to me like a company that...
Helen Mary Jones: I'm grateful to the Minister, both for his kind words with regard to my new portfolio and with regard to what he's told us about the position with Aston Martin. But I would submit that there are still some questions for which we need answers and that there are some concerns. I mean, the fact is that Aston Martin sales have fallen overall by 16 per cent from July 2019 to September 2019. The...
Helen Mary Jones: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. It's my pleasure to address this Chamber for the first time in my new role as the shadow Minister for the economy, tackling poverty and transport. I was interested to hear the Minister say in his response to Russell George that he feels that our economy is doing well and we have to accept that, yes, we do have a low rate of unemployment. But I wonder if the Minister...
Helen Mary Jones: 6. What discussions has the Minister had regarding the impact of Brexit on the automotive sector in Mid and West Wales? OAQ54963
Helen Mary Jones: Will the Member take an intervention?
Helen Mary Jones: I'm not sure if the Member is aware that, in terms of response rates to that survey, it was fewer than 13 per cent of local authority members who were surveyed who responded at all. One would expect, under those circumstances, that they would be members who were opposed. I think we just have to be a bit careful about how we use those figures, and I've already made the point about the New...
Helen Mary Jones: Sorry, Darren, I need to continue my remarks. I take your point.
Helen Mary Jones: Well, allow me to explain.
Helen Mary Jones: There is a difference—and it depends entirely upon who one believes, of course. But what these two things do—[Interruption.]
Helen Mary Jones: I have allowed Darren Millar to make an intervention; I would like him, if he will, to listen to my reply. And my reply is this: the things that the Bill we debated earlier—the Westminster Bill—and this have in common is that, read the wrong way, they both amount to a Westminster power grab. If we pass this amendment, non-devolved bodies, which Janet Finch-Saunders has rightly...
Helen Mary Jones: I would absolutely agree with Huw Irranca-Davies on this. Let me just briefly take the three sections one by one. The Crown Prosecution Service must have revised its guidance: well, I am prepared to accept the Minister's assurance that she's given me today on behalf of my party that she fully anticipates that, by the time this legislation is implemented, that guidance will have been revised,...
Helen Mary Jones: I read the amendment and was somewhat confused by its intent. I'd rather hoped that Janet Finch-Saunders's contribution to the debate might enlighten me. In fact, it has confused me further, because there were some points in her contribution when it sounded as if she was calling for the devolution of the criminal justice system to enable this place to have control over the Crown Prosecution...
Helen Mary Jones: It is of course the default position of these benches that we always want to be keeping an eye on whatever the Government is doing. From that point of view, I have some sympathy with what Janet Finch-Saunders is attempting to achieve with this amendment, but in this case it seems unnecessary. This is a simple repeal, this is not a complex piece of legislation, and if the Deputy Minister is...
Helen Mary Jones: While we would accept that the concerns the Member is raising are genuine, we are at a loss to see where the evidence is that public bodies are likely to face really substantial extra financial pressures as a result of this legislation. I would again refer Members opposite to the example of the Republic of Ireland, where there was no additional pressure on public services. Now, of course,...
Helen Mary Jones: The Plaid Cymru group will be supporting these amendments. I personally feel that the Government's been very generous in accepting them. I don't anticipate that there will be negative consequences for the Government to report upon. Certainly, the experience in the Republic of Ireland does not suggest this. Janet Finch-Saunders, in responding to the previous debate, referenced the poll in New...
Helen Mary Jones: You could follow that through. I would argue that the change in the law on organ donation was actually much bigger in terms of its influence on people's practice than this is. But that said, the Government—if we just look at the evidence, and the most concrete piece of evidence is in the budget. We have a saying in Welsh, 'Diwedd y gân yw'r geiniog'—at the end of the song comes the...
Helen Mary Jones: I rise to speak in this debate on behalf of my colleague Siân Gwenllian, who is unfortunately unwell and unable to be with us today. But I also rise as a person who has campaigned for over 25 years to bring about this change. And this, of course, has been a matter that has been discussed on many occasions in this Assembly, long before we had the power, and the will was there. Well, now we...
Helen Mary Jones: So, it's really important that we don't say or do anything that feeds into this culture that assumes that when women make these allegations they are lying, because, as Delyth and others have said, that is the underlying assumption. We do not make those assumptions about other victims of other violent crimes. And I'm afraid that this reflects a misogynistic culture. Unless we believe that...
