Jenny Rathbone: 1. What plans does the Commission have to grow food on the Senedd estate? OQ56280
Jenny Rathbone: I welcome very much the commitment that Rebecca has given to ensure that all free-school-meal children, in term time and in the holidays, are getting one meal a day, right up to Easter next year. This is a hugely complex issue, and it's much more than about that one meal a day. The importance, for example, of the Food and Fun programme isn't just the quality meals lovingly produced by the...
Jenny Rathbone: I'd like to start by congratulating Rebecca Evans on managing to produce a budget that keeps the wheels turning on the health service and our economy in the middle of a pandemic. That is no small achievement. Just by listening to what everybody else has said, there's no part of Welsh society unaffected by the pandemic. So, the demands on the public purse are assaulting her on all sides, and...
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you very much, Deputy Minister, for your commitment to decisions about local services being made with local people, because I think that has to be our starting point. Unless we have democratic accountability and proper engagement with the people who need the framework, the services that we need to provide them, then we really are not looking at the jigsaw that I like to refer to, which...
Jenny Rathbone: [Inaudible.]
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you. I wanted to raise a serious incident that took place at the Queensferry Gypsy and Traveller site managed by Flintshire County Council at the end of last month, which involved the mishandling of a COVID outbreak. An incident management team was set up, and somebody somewhere decided that—rather than asking the five families where someone had COVID to self-isolate, a decision was...
Jenny Rathbone: I welcome the Tory motion, because I think we don't talk enough about death, even though it faces us all eventually. I think one of the worst things about the pandemic is people dying in hospital without their loved ones holding on to them. So, I absolutely salute the heroic efforts of nursing and social care staff, who have enabled people to die with dignity, even if they haven't been able...
Jenny Rathbone: I'm very grateful for the feedback that I've had from the social housing sector about the work they are doing with tenants who have got into difficulties during the pandemic, enabling them to access discretionary housing payments through Cardiff Council, if required, and supporting them to come up with sustainable plans for tackling any arrears. So, I think that there is a bigger problem...
Jenny Rathbone: 3. What assessment has Welsh Government made of the rent arrears that have built up in Cardiff since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic? OQ56212
Jenny Rathbone: I wonder if I could ask for a statement from the health Minister on the continuation of telemedical abortion services? These have been absolutely vital during the pandemic lockdown to enable women to access early medical abortions without having to leave their homes. I wrote to the Minister in November on behalf of the women's health cross-party group, pointing out the discussion that we'd...
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you, First Minister for that answer. We've all seen the photos of cut-up carrots and peppers, which were supposed to be sufficient for making five lunches for free-school-meal families in England, and I'm sure you would share my shock that private companies have been permitted to charge £30 for such utterly inadequate food parcels. In contrast, all free-school-meals children in Cardiff...
Jenny Rathbone: 4. What is the Welsh Government's strategy for tackling food insecurity in Cardiff? OQ56245
Jenny Rathbone: —eight weeks after the first, and GP surgeries are busy sorting out all the over-80s, and will then move on to the over-75s. In short, the Welsh vaccination programme is—[Interruption.]
Jenny Rathbone: [Inaudible.]—vaccinate all these priority groups before the middle of next month.
Jenny Rathbone: I want to welcome Angela Burns to the health portfolio, as I'm sure she would not have crafted this motion quite in this way. On point 2, we are supposed to be grateful that the significant supply of vaccines provided by the UK Conservative Government is being given to all home nations. I mean, is it not the job of the UK Government to deliver vaccines to the different nations and regions of...
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you very much for your detailed statement. We're both of the female species, so obviously we're not unfamiliar with the concept of discrimination, so I just want to address the challenges that any system faces in addressing gender, ethnicity, physical appearance, prior learning difficulty, that consciously or subconsciously, any human being is capable of making. We've got lots of...
Jenny Rathbone: What is the Welsh Government doing during the pandemic to support families in Cardiff Central?
Jenny Rathbone: —contribution that children make? Thank you.
Jenny Rathbone: I too would like to pay tribute to Meilyr Rowlands who I have known for over a decade since I was a humble lay inspector, and Meilyr was always there for all of us, and he's particularly always been there for the children of Wales to focus on the quality of the pedagogy required to ensure that all our learners achieve to the best of their ability. But also that commitment to the well-being of...
Jenny Rathbone: So, how do you think you're going to be able to, if you like, make the case for Wales to get support for upgrading its so severely neglected Welsh infrastructure in the context that we'll get absolutely nothing from the billions being showered on HS2? Surely Wales needs to get some of the UK money that's going to be spent on making the transport of the future?
