Rhun ap Iorwerth: 8. Will the Minister make a statement on the availability of revision material for the driving theory test in Welsh? OQ57689
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Just a few comments from me. The changes are few, if truth be told, but every one is significant as we move forward to a more endemic phase. But, as a first comment, it does make sense to extend the main regulations until the end of March. We still haven't put the pandemic behind us, but on a practical level, the statutory defences still in place are very few and far between. I would make the...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I thank the Deputy Minister for the statement today.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I know that this is an issue that the Minister has a keen interest in. We both served on the health committee in the fifth Senedd as we were going through the passage of the Public Health (Wales) Bill. I tabled the amendment that led to the Government agreeing to introduce an obesity strategy, and I know the Minister and I were in agreement that this really has to be a priority for us. The...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Certainly, they are, and there are people behind every statistic. I, and others on these benches, have been gathering evidence about the impact of the ambulance crisis.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: The stories that we hear are frightening: an 89-year-old woman collapsed and lying on the floor for six hours; a farming accident with no ambulance being available at all, so the patient is taken by car with a broken back; a wheelchair-dependent patient suffering a fracture being told to wait three days because it's non-urgent; a woman whose symptoms were deemed to require an emergency...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Llywydd. I have become disheartened once again looking today at waiting times for health appointments. It was CAMHS appointments that I saw today, showing that only 22 per cent receive an appointment within four weeks, the lowest level ever, when it was 75 per cent a year ago. Tomorrow, we're expecting broader health statistics, including ambulance waiting times, which...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I would like to explain why I and Plaid Cymru will be opposing forcefully this LCM. This is a very wide-ranging Bill that it refers to. It contains elements, as the Minister said, that she is eager to see being extended to Wales. I certainly don't have any opposition to seeing the sharing of legislation across these isles, for example, in an area such as making it illegal to test someone's...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: May I thank the Minister for her statement? I am pleased to hear that confidence is increasing, that cases are reducing and that the number requiring hospital treatment is also reducing. I am content with the phased approach and the cautious timetable as we lift the few remaining measures still in place. There are few direct restrictions in terms of its effect on our daily lives. In terms of...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I'd like to ask for a statement from the Trefnydd in her role as Minister for rural affairs and agriculture. The Australian High Commissioner to the UK will be visiting Anglesey this week. I always enjoy welcoming visitors to the island, of course, but George Brandis will be meeting with farmers who will be very eager, I'm sure, to raise their concerns about the impact of a trade deal between...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Llywydd, we as Plaid Cymru Members are very pleased to have the opportunity to put forward a debate like this one in our nation's Parliament, our Senedd. We've had an opportunity today to outline some of the fundamental issues that we believe could enable us to strengthen Wales's future foundations. But, this Senedd needs to take action, ultimately, to realise that we, as the representatives...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I'll immediately ask if you want to come back on this. Are you saying now that you would like to get rid of devolution because you don't like some things another party over there does? I'm not in that party either. I'd love to get rid of them out of power, but we have the power in our own hands in Wales and we have that potential, and that is what we are seeking always. Carry on.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Isn't it again revealing that when we're talking about something so fundamentally important to the future of Wales, you cannot help but take up the temptation of politicising this in that way? When we are looking at releasing our potential, you need to be a little bit more serious in your politics. The motion, as well as looking at the control that we could bring through the devolution of...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: This wasn't tabled as a debate about independence. Yes, we on the Plaid Cymru benches are crystal clear in our version of an independent Wales, and our resources, the careful management of those resources for the benefit of all the people of Wales, form a big part of that. But, of course, controlling those resources as best we can, stopping exploitation, often by others outside Wales, of the...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Llywydd, and thank you for all of the contributions. I will process the comments made by the Minister and return to those perhaps towards the end of my contribution here. I and my fellow Members on the Plaid Cymru benches believe in Wales. We are ambitious for Wales, and I hope that everybody in this Siambr would say that they, too, agree with that aim. But what...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will you take an intervention?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Why does it work for Scotland and it wouldn't work for Wales?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Well, if you will take another intervention, Crown Estate Scotland has just issued leases for 25 GW—a staggering amount of offshore wind generation—because they're driven to do it because they have the ultimate gain out of that. You're driven to do it because you have the initiative and you have the powers to do it. That's why it works.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Deputy Llywydd, and I'm very pleased to have an opportunity to contribute to this important debate and to formally move our amendment. In terms of the main motion, we will support the motion today, of course. As well as being a statement of very real concern about the state of health services in general after two years of pandemic, there are elements of the motion that I...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: But I fear that, sometimes, decisions are made without a deep understanding of the communities that they affect. Let's look at that principle of centralisation. I totally understand the arguments for developing centres that are able to have a bigger throughput of patients with the most serious illnesses. But (a) when we do that for rural areas, say, we have to think innovatively so as not to...
