Dawn Bowden: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on advice services in Wales that can help reduce pressures and costs for welfare claimants?
Dawn Bowden: Like others, I welcome the interim report and the opportunity to speak on the hugely important issues that are identified in it. I do hope that the final report of this parliamentary review provides a basis for this whole Assembly to find some fresh political consensus that helps us to deliver the continuing changes that we need to make in order to deliver the ever-improving health and social...
Dawn Bowden: First Minister, when I recently met with farmers in Rhymney—yes, there are farmers in Rhymney—we discussed many issues relating to Brexit and its potential impact on the rural economy, and, contrary to the implications in Neil Hamilton’s question earlier, one particular concern that they had was their inability to be able to recruit labour locally—casual labour, seasonal...
Dawn Bowden: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Last week I was delighted to attend Fochriw Primary School’s red kite celebration fair-trade coffee afternoon. The red kite project at the school is designed to develop the pupils to be ethically informed and to hold strong values about the environment and the nature that is around them. For the project, the school formed an eco-committee, which came up with a range...
Dawn Bowden: Cabinet Secretary, the cross-party group on asbestos received a presentation at its meeting in May on immunotherapy as a potential treatment in mesothelioma, including the SKOPOS trial at Velindre, looking at how a vaccine called TroVax may work alongside chemotherapy for those who suffer from pleural mesothelioma. Funding for this research runs out in August of this year and there’s...
Dawn Bowden: Cabinet Secretary, given the contribution that tourism is making to economic development across the country, I’m pleased to note the tremendous success that we’ve seen with the tourist investment support scheme across Wales. But I am concerned to note that, of the 205 schemes that have received offers of grant support under the tourism investment support scheme since April 2011, only four...
Dawn Bowden: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on Welsh Government support for mesothelioma research in Wales?
Dawn Bowden: So, once again, we’re faced with an amendment proposed that is about as predictable as it is ill-conceived, much like the previous three amendments. As I’ve said before, Llywydd, no trade union or its members lightly or enthusiastically embrace the need to take industrial action, but what you can be equally certain of is that no trade union official or member wants any dispute to drag on...
Dawn Bowden: I absolutely agree with you, and it was the very point I was just coming on to, Mike. Thank you very much. The ballot thresholds, as we know, certainly didn’t apply in the EU referendum, which was without doubt the single most important issue that we have voted on in this country in our lifetime. And however close the margin in that referendum, and whatever the turnout, we all agreed that...
Dawn Bowden: I beg your pardon; sorry.
Dawn Bowden: Well, if I remarked in the debates on the two previous groups of amendments that the Tories just don’t get it, never has that been more true than in respect of these amendments on balloting. Maybe some of the Welsh Conservatives were brought up influenced by the Thatcher philosophy surrounding trade unions. You remember those nasty trade unions dominated by the unrepresentative barons whose...
Dawn Bowden: It certainly didn’t apply to the—
Dawn Bowden: It’s bureaucratic nonsense and unnecessary. The facility time itself, as research has shown, provides the public, the council tax payers, with benefits and savings through the work that they do. If the Tories were able to set aside for a moment their anti-trade union prejudice and talk to public service trade unions, they might begin to get some understanding of what they do, and learn that...
Dawn Bowden: I'm guessing the Tories will be happy that I'm not going to repeat all of the information I made in the last—[Interruption.] But there are some common themes, and, fundamentally, those are the opposition of employers to what is contained in the Tories' UK legislation and in this amendment and the complete lack of understanding by the Tories of what unions do and how they work. And the most...
Dawn Bowden: So, here we go again: same old Tories, fighting yesterday’s battles, with yesterday’s arguments, on yesterday’s issues, oblivious to the fact that the world has moved on from the anti-union rhetoric of the 1970s and the 1980s. It’s ironic, is it not, that on the day that Theresa May makes a desperate plea to other parties to help her out of the almighty mess that she’s made of...
Dawn Bowden: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. You’ll probably be aware that Cardiff University Business School recently carried out a survey of those employers across the UK who’ve chosen to become accredited living wage employers, i.e. paying the foundation living wage, which is of course £8.45—almost £1 more than the UK’s national minimal wage—and ensuring that the contractors that they use...
Dawn Bowden: 5. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the payment of the foundation living wage by local authorities in Wales? OAQ(5)0155(FLG)
Dawn Bowden: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Cabinet Secretary, we spoke this morning about the issues that I raised with you, but can I just say I was very pleased, when I visited the only high-rise tower in my constituency, which is in Merthyr Tydfil, that the cladding on that building is not of the ACM type, but is of the Rockwell type, which means that it is fire retardant and it’s covered by a...
Dawn Bowden: Diolch, Llywydd. Last week, I had the privilege of attending the Chwarae Teg Womenspire awards, where the work of women across Wales was celebrated and recognised, with awards in categories ranging from community activism to business, industry, and the arts. And I was delighted that Sarah Draper, the fitness managing director at Inspire Fitness in Merthyr, won the game changer of the year...
Dawn Bowden: Will the First Minister provide an update on the Cardiff capital region city deal?
