Alun Davies: I'd like to make a point of order on this procedure, Presiding Officer.
Alun Davies: I assumed the debate would turn out like this this afternoon, actually. Perhaps I should have thought differently about it. When you consider what's been going on both before and after the referendum, ironically I think it's the Luxembourg Prime Minister, Xavier Bettel, that I feel most sympathy for, when he said, 'Before, they were in and they had many opt-outs; now they want to be out...
Alun Davies: Others have made the case this afternoon for the principle of buses and funding bus services, and the organisation and management of bus services. I endorse everything that was said in opening this debate by my colleague Huw Irranca-Davies; I think it's absolutely essential that we recognise the place of buses in a wider public transport policy. What I'd like to do is seek to describe how...
Alun Davies: Thank you very much, Minister. I would suggest that perhaps the Government do so. Those of us who live and were brought up in the Heads of the Valleys are well used to seeing sheep around our communities as part of the nature of the place. But what we've seen recently is the failure of the local authority in Blaenau Gwent to maintain fences and to maintain the common areas where they have...
Alun Davies: 3. What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the impact of roaming farm animals on animal welfare? OQ56661
Alun Davies: I'm grateful to you, Presiding Officer. I wanted to respond to a point that Peter Fox made. This isn't inherently a political matter. When I was a Minister in the Welsh Government, I worked alongside Conservative Ministers. We sat in the delegation room in Brussels and argued the same case for Welsh Government-provided civil servants to work with the United Kingdom Government in order to...
Alun Davies: No, not to get rid of you. You didn't understand it; that's the problem, Peter. When I asked you what powers you wanted, you didn't reply. What we need to be able to do is to provide the funding and the funding streams openly, transparently, fairly, according to need, and then deliver to those people. That was what was being done, and what's being done here is a dismantling of that system....
Alun Davies: I welcome the debate this afternoon. I welcome the Government bringing forward a debate on this important matter so early following the election. It's absolutely essential that if the UK is to mean anything at all, the wealth of the United Kingdom is shared fairly between the constituent parts of the United Kingdom, both across the nations of the UK, but also within the nations of the United...
Alun Davies: First Minister, I welcome this afternoon’s statement and I welcome the radical vision that runs through it. It is one thing to present a lengthy, dry document, but there is something different about presenting a document that describes a radical journey for Wales. I welcome the document that we’ve had sight of today. I welcome not just the vision contained with it, but the radical...
Alun Davies: Minister, could we have an urgent statement from the Government on their analysis of the trade deal that seems to have been agreed last night between the United Kingdom and Australia? It appears from reports, and it certainly is the view of the two farming unions in Wales, that this is an opportunity for the UK Government to sacrifice agriculture in Wales, with the associated impact on rural...
Alun Davies: First Minister, I think there's a very broad welcome for the £70 million that the Welsh Government is going to be providing to enhance the Ebbw valley line over the coming years, and, in making this investment, of course, the Welsh Government is making good the failure of the United Kingdom Government to invest in these matters, and I think many of us would wish that the UK Government would...
Alun Davies: I'd like to ask for an urgent statement on any potential free trade deal with Australia. We heard the news over the weekend that the UK Conservative Government is turning its back on rural Wales and turning its back on the agricultural industry. We've heard from both farming unions about the potential detrimental effect on farming across the whole of our country on the basis of a free trade...
Alun Davies: I'm grateful to the First Minister for that, and grateful for the way in which he has led the Welsh Government's response to COVID over the last year or so. And there are many aspects to recovery from COVID, which the First Minister's already described. But, today, I would like again to focus on the future of our town centres. First Minister, John Griffiths spoke earlier today on the future...
Alun Davies: 6. Will the First Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's approach to recovery from COVID-19 in Blaenau Gwent? OQ56514
Alun Davies: First Minister, the people of Blaenau Gwent trusted you and the Welsh Government in the handling of this pandemic, and they trusted the decisions that you've been taking over this past year. And you will know, from your visits to Blaenau Gwent, that people wanted to thank you very much for the way in which you've led the Government's response on this, and I certainly want to convey those...
Alun Davies: First Minister, like others, I want to welcome the re-election of the Labour Government and also the reappointment of yourself as First Minister and the team of Ministers that you have assembled to drive Wales forward over the next four years or so. My question this afternoon is on how that will happen in policy terms and about the mechanics of Government rather than the appointments of...
Alun Davies: I second the nomination.
Alun Davies: Many of us will have shared the company of Prince Philip, accompanying Her Majesty the Queen, at royal openings of the Senedd and on other occasions, but I also remember some of the less formal conversations. When he and the Queen visited Ebbw Vale in 2012 as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, I noticed how he also spent time helping people to feel at ease and to enjoy the occasion. He...
Alun Davies: I'm grateful to the Chair for his introduction. I should also say we've been grateful for his leadership as well throughout this Senedd, as, since he took over as Chair, he's led the committee in a way that has, I think, demonstrated the power of the committee system and also the power of his own example as Chair. We're very grateful to him for that, and grateful also to the committee...
Alun Davies: I think future generations will have a great deal to thank this Minister for. The reforms that she has made in five years will stand the test of time. By laying these regulations and this code today, she will also make sure that no child is left behind, and that is an extraordinary record of a single parliamentary term. When we introduced the legislation back in 2016, there was clear...
