Rhianon Passmore: I will. Thank you. And I'll come to that secondarily.
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you, and I'll turn to my supplementary question. The Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 makes it a duty for the Welsh Government 'to superintend, and promote the improvement of, the public library service provided by local authorities...and to secure the proper discharge...of the functions in relation to libraries conferred on them as library authorities' under the Act. Minister, in...
Rhianon Passmore: 4. How is the Welsh Government supporting the future of public libraries in Islwyn? OQ59143
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you for that response, Minister. Markham Primary School sits in the constituency of Islwyn, built over 110 years ago in 1913, serving the local community. It's a green but not a leafy suburb. Will you join me in congratulating Markham's headteacher, Mrs Lindsey Pritchard, her staff, governors and pupils for a glowing report from Estyn that extolled praise on the school in its recent...
Rhianon Passmore: 4. What action is the Welsh Government taking to raise educational standards in Islwyn? OQ59097
Rhianon Passmore: Will you take an intervention?
Rhianon Passmore: With regard a complete lack of capital funding for Wales and the complete and utter lack of infrastructure funding over the last 10 years, how can you explain that?
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you very much, and I also welcome the statement today. Earlier this month, I spoke to my Labour Party membership in Islwyn regarding the work of the commission and the interim report, and my sense from that meeting and wider discussions is that there's still much to be done in totality to communicate the work of the independent commission on the constitutional future of Wales. Because...
Rhianon Passmore: Diolch, Trefnydd. Thank you. A popular independent cafe, called Marmajo's, had premises on Pen-y-fan industrial estate in Crumlin until it very recently closed, and the owner, Charlie Allcock, reluctantly made a really hard decision, after watching her energy bills triple, to almost £1,800 a month. Also, in Pontllanfraith, the Islwyn bowls club reopened following the pandemic restrictions,...
Rhianon Passmore: 2. What is the Welsh Government doing to aid post-pandemic economic renewal in Islwyn? OQ59069
Rhianon Passmore: Will you take an intervention?
Rhianon Passmore: With the greatest respect, I recognise the unprecedented challenges. I do not feel, in terms of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, that it is helpful to label and use semantics about something that's of such great proportional interest to the people of Wales, and I did not say that.
Rhianon Passmore: And finally, Deputy Llywydd, I will be voting for the amendment as proposed by Lesley Griffiths. Thank you.
Rhianon Passmore: I really want to finish, if you don't mind. This has been advanced by former English health Minister Sajid Javid. These are your party's policies. He wants to explore people paying to see a GP—with everything that Sioned Williams has just articulated—and believes in opening up the NHS to the free market. This is what is at stake. With the Tories, it's always the same: they want to shrink...
Rhianon Passmore: —and claim this so-called better way.
Rhianon Passmore: I absolutely agree with that, Jenny Rathbone; we have a whole host of different mechanisms of seeking healthcare. But this is an important discussion, and I'm going to develop it. We know that another crucial facet of what we must address is ambulance waiting times in Wales. Nobody should die from an excessive wait for an ambulance. Now we know that new ambulance training posts are real. But...
Rhianon Passmore: Yes.
Rhianon Passmore: I stated yesterday in First Minister's questions that it is important that all of us here in Senedd Cymru, the Welsh Parliament, are candid about the very real challenges facing our beloved national health service right across the four nations of the United Kingdom. There is no corner of the United Kingdom that has not seen extensive pressures on each of its own constituent parts of the...
Rhianon Passmore: May I sincerely thank Delyth Jewell, the committee Chair, and her fellow committee members for this important report placed before the Senedd today? I believe that all of us in this Chamber understand that culture and sport are totally integral to the fabric and identity of Welsh life. We know that our cultural and sporting organisations barely endured the financial storm that the COVID...
Rhianon Passmore: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, and thank you, Minister, for your statement. The sheer extent of the evil of the Holocaust remains unfathomable to comprehension. I have also had the honour and privilege of speaking to a number of Holocaust survivors now: children, people, human beings, and it was and is evil in its purest. A number of Members have spoken to the horrors of the Rwanda genocide, but I...
