Rhun ap Iorwerth: This week is a week of commemoration and reflection exactly a year since that first lockdown. The UK Prime Minister's admitted that he made some wrong decisions in dealing with the pandemic, but I'm not going to ask that question of the Minister. What I want the Minister to do is to look back at the 20 years and more of Labour control of the NHS leading up to the pandemic. One lesson that...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you, Llywydd. Well, in the final health and care question session in this Senedd, may I take this opportunity to thank the Minister and his officials for their collaboration over the years? We haven't always seen eye to eye, but whilst I've been very willing to support the Government when I think they've got things right over the past 12 months, I know that the Minister will understand...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will the Minister make a statement on promoting the mental wellbeing of the people of Ynys Môn?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: These are broad-ranging regulations, and may I say at the outset that I agree with the general direction of travel and the pace or caution in terms of lifting restrictions generally? In terms of reopening schools and colleges, I think we all see that as a priority, and I'm pleased that we have moved from 'stay at home' to 'stay local', and, though it's a matter of guidance rather than...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: That's what we want to deliver within health and care in Wales, and we want to ensure that our care staff are rewarded for their work. The Government's amendment withdraws that from this motion this afternoon. The Government says that it wants to pay a real living wage, but removes from our motion what we want to do in Government, in providing a minimum of £10 per hour for care staff. So,...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 'Let’s be clear: a one-off COVID-19 bonus is not the significant and substantive pay rise that we have been calling for for our nursing staff. What we want from the Welsh Government is a commitment to ensuring fair pay for nursing, fair pay that addresses the 1,600+ vacancies in Wales, fair pay that encourages nurses to stay in the profession and fair pay that ensures the delivery of...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Llywydd. I thank the Minister for his response to this debate and everyone who's participated—to Dai and Helen for reinforcing what's contained within this motion before us today. I'd like to thank Members of all parties and of the Government who have declared, as a matter of principle, how important it is that we reward our staff properly and pay them properly within...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I don't need to explain too much about the content of the motion itself. We condemn the UK Government's proposal to give a tiny pay increase of 1 per cent for nurses—and I see the Minister laughing; perhaps he can explain why he's laughing in just a moment. We condemn the UK Government's proposal to give a totally inadequate 1 per cent pay rise to nurses and other NHS staff, which would...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. It's my pleasure to open this debate and to formally move the motion in the name of Siân Gwenllian. How many of us have said 'thank you' over the past 12 months? How many of us have stood on our doorsteps clapping?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: How many of us have remembered over the past year the importance of saying 'thank you' to those who work so selflessly across the health and care sectors to look after us? How many of us have stopped to think and realise that care doesn't just happen? We're cared for because people—our friends and neighbours, people we grew up with, went to school with—decided to commit their professional...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thanks for just giving me a minute or two to make a short contribution—and can I thank Osian Jones for organising the petition? What I want to do is just highlight one of the problems we face, and that's the loophole that I've spoken about on numerous occasions here and elsewhere that allows second home owners to register their homes as businesses, and in so doing, avoid paying council tax,...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you. There was no mention of the freezing of council tax there. We've made our views clear on that. That's a temporary step, of course, and we need to think carefully about how to reform local taxation for the longer term. It's not a politically easy thing to do, but we are talking here about tackling major inequalities, and, even with mitigation steps in place, we know that, according...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I appreciate the Minister's efforts to put a spin on things, but what I see there is an admission that we need so many mitigation steps in place because council tax is fundamentally unfair. And the right answer—if there is such a thing—is that council tax wasn't fair when she came to post, and it's still not fair today. Because of the impossible situation that councils find themselves in...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you, Llywydd. Over the past few weeks, Welsh councils have been making very difficult decisions on the level of council tax for next year, at such a difficult time for so many of the people that they serve. Can the Minister tell me whether she believes council tax is fairer now than it was when she became Minister for finance in 2018?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: In the spirit of positivity, I will say at the outset that I sympathise with the Minister, to the extent that the pandemic, of course, has had a very great impact on the broader context and on all of our capacity to look at health and care in the longer term. And that pressure on capacity, of course, is very real. We see it in the fatigue of our staff, in the financial pressures, the...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I have two questions and two points, Minister. The two questions relate to questions that are raised with me by constituents, and I'm sure with other Members, on the process. I want to start, of course, by thanking everyone involved in the vaccination process. It's still working well, and we're clearly on the right track. One of the questions is about what happens at the end of the day....
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Llywydd. My contribution won't be very long to this debate. I want to take this opportunity once again to thank everyone who is working so very hard on our behalf across health and care services in all parts of Wales. The willingness of staff to go that extra mile time and time again over the past year is something that each and every one of us has appreciated, and I hope...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: May I also thank Laura Williams for bringing this petition forward and for managing to gather so many signatures? It's proof that this is an area where people want to see greater action from Government. I think we are in a far better position these days in terms of our willingness to discuss mental health issues. A lot of stigma is being tackled slowly, but there's a long way to go too, and...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much for that response. I will make the point that it's not only older people who can benefit from home adaptations. I applaud the Motor Neurone Disease Association for the campaign that they're running at the moment pushing for more home adaptations for people living with that condition. But looking at older people particularly, we know that older people falling is very...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 1. Will the Minister make a statement on the importance of home adaptations as a way of helping older people to live more healthily and independently? OQ56408
