Darren Millar: 7. Will the Minister make a statement on council tax rises in north Wales? OQ59306
Darren Millar: Minister, can I call for two statements from the Government, please, this week? The first is on standards of stroke care in Wales. The Stroke Association recently circulated information that showed that the latest sentinel stroke national audit programme identified that stroke services in Wales have been deteriorating, and in fact, in north Wales were worse than in any other part of the...
Darren Millar: Can I ask you, Trefnydd, for a statement from yourself in your capacity as rural affairs Minister in relation to squirrelpox? There are huge problems with squirrelpox; it's affecting many red squirrels, our native squirrels, in Scotland, and I'm very concerned that we must do everything we can in order to prevent outbreaks here. There was an outbreak, of course, on Ynys Môn just a few years...
Darren Millar: I appreciate that answer. I know there's a statement on this matter later on, but 16 years ago when I first became a Member of the Senedd, people were able to access two NHS check-ups a year, and most people in my constituency were able top register with a local NHS dentist without any issues. Sixteen years on, NHS dentistry, particularly in north Wales, appears to be falling off a cliff. I...
Darren Millar: 8. What action is the Welsh Government taking to improve access to NHS dentistry in Clwyd West? OQ59250
Darren Millar: Will you take an intervention?
Darren Millar: Is that okay, Deputy Presiding Officer?
Darren Millar: You talk very passionately about independence, as, of course, all members of Plaid Cymru do, but do you accept that the fiscal gap means that you'd either have to raise taxes significantly or cut public spending significantly, which would have an enormously damaging impact on Wales and its people?
Darren Millar: Well, I always reflect on my comments, but I can't, still, understand why on earth, given that the commission is supposed to complete its work in the current calendar year, you have allocated expenditure that takes it through to March 2025. You still haven't answered that principal question. Why is a commission, which is due to be finished, having in your budget line—in the Welsh...
Darren Millar: Can I welcome you back from your recent mission to Ukraine, which we were all cheering you on with, along with Alun Davies, our other Senedd colleague, and wish you a very happy St David's Day? I appreciate the response that you've given, and we have crossed swords on this issue of the budget on a number of occasions in the past. But we know that one of the things that you have asked the...
Darren Millar: Diolch, Llywydd. Minister, will you provide a statement on the budget for the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales?
Darren Millar: You sacked them for doing that.
Darren Millar: —if I may, Deputy Presiding Officer? Lots of these executives have a close working relationship with people, understandably, in your Government department, including, of course, the chief executive of NHS Wales. I want to know what the chief executive of NHS Wales actually does to hold those individuals responsible. Because if she's the chief executive of NHS Wales, you'd expect her to be...
Darren Millar: Because that will be a third report pointing to problems in that executive team. Can I ask one final question—
Darren Millar: 'We found clear and deep-seated fractures within the Executive Team', 'we have significant doubt as to whether working relationships'— this is within the executive team—'are reparable'. There are 'significant problems with working relationships within the Executive Team'. 'The evidence presented to us points to dysfunctionality and factions within the team'. It's within the executive team...
Darren Millar: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I listened very carefully to your statement, Minister, and I didn't hear an apology to the people of north Wales for the failure of this Welsh Government to sort out the deep-seated problems in our health board in the region, that have been ongoing, not just since 2015 when the Welsh Government first put Betsi Cadwaladr into special measures, but for a...
Darren Millar: Can I thank the Minister for an advance copy of his statement? As you’ll know, we on these benches have been calling for you to bring forward your net-zero skills strategy for many months, so we’re finally glad that it has been published. Because you're quite right: we have a huge job to do if we’re to get to net zero by 2050, and we have many skills that our workforce needs to be able...
Darren Millar: Can I thank the Minister for his statement this afternoon? I'm very pleased to hear that this strategy has now been published—this document—and that there will be a delivery plan that is going to sit alongside it. You said, Minister, in your remarks there, that the delivery plan will be published shortly, and it would be useful, I think, for us all to have a timescale by which you expect...
Darren Millar: What action is the Welsh Government taking to ensure that North Wales receives a fair share of Welsh Government spending?
Darren Millar: There are three schemes that are referred to in my constituency in the roads review report, all of which, unfortunately, it's likely, appearing from the document, are going to be scrapped. Now, these are schemes that I've corresponded with you and your predecessors on over many years and each time I have corresponded with you, up until the roads review started, everything had a green light...
