Bethan Sayed: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the suspension of Welsh Government funding to NSA Afan? EAQ(5)0093(CC)
Bethan Sayed: Well, clearly, as has been said, the higher education sector is crucially important to both our society and economy, not least because its research and development projects are crucial in creating a more prosperous economy here in Wales. Doubts over research funding make this an uncertain time for the sector. Ending our access to money from international bodies could lead to a struggling...
Bethan Sayed: Will you take an intervention?
Bethan Sayed: I just wanted to go on the other side of the argument and make sure that even when we’re talking about obesity that we don’t encourage people to go the other way to develop eating disorders. I’ve met many people who have had weight problems, who have been obese, and then they’ve gone to the other extreme. So, just to add that to the debate here today.
Bethan Sayed: I’d like to use my first 90-second statement to pay tribute to Rebecca Evans, who was killed in a car accident on the M4 at Port Talbot last year, along with her eight-month unborn baby. Many Members in the Chamber will know Rebecca through her work as Shelter Cymru’s education and youth officer. In fact, I met her many times to discuss my financial education Bill. She and her husband,...
Bethan Sayed: I was wondering if we could have a statement on your Government’s investigation into New Sandfields Aberafan, NSA Afan. I only understood from the chief executive of Neath Port Talbot council—I saw an e-mail sent to our group leader—that there was an ongoing investigation into financial irregularities and that funds are suspended at present. The Government—your audit office within the...
Bethan Sayed: First Minister, in the past, you’ve recognised the importance of pensions in the economy when I’ve raised issues with you with regard to Visteon UK and the campaign that many of us were involved in at the time, in relation to the South Wales West economy, and, if those pensions were threatened in some way, how that would affect the economy. So, I’m wondering if we could have, therefore,...
Bethan Sayed: Will the First Minister make a statement on the New Sandfields Afan initiative?
Bethan Sayed: Diolch. Before I begin today, I’d like to pay a particular tribute to the three tireless campaigners whose passion and commitment have driven this issue I’m going to speak about here today, and who at the very least deserve a full and fair hearing for this forward-thinking proposal. The first is my constituent Jenna Satterley, who took a recent tragedy, a burglary at the Ty-Nant sanctuary...
Bethan Sayed: Diolch and thank you, all, for contributing to this debate today. I think, as many of you have said, it’s not just a debate for us to have at the times when we might be feeling that this might be more acute, it’s at times when we need to discuss this throughout the year and make sure that the problems are eradicated. We did hear from Jenny Rathbone first of all and I do agree with you...
Bethan Sayed: [Interruption.] Making an entrance. [Laughter.] Between this debate and Christmas, 16 children will lose their homes because they will be evicted with their families from social housing. Welsh public services will spend over £600,000 dealing with the consequences of these evictions. These children are likely to face lifelong consequences on their health, their education and, therefore, their...
Bethan Sayed: Just following on from that, I wonder whether you would be willing, as Cabinet Secretary, to meet with some of the asylum seekers and refugees in the area so that they can tell you directly what those concerns are, because many of them feel that they’re not listened to. There are myths, of course, about the fact that they are taking homes from people from Wales. That is not the case...
Bethan Sayed: Thank you very much. On a different matter entirely, I know that you will be aware that we’ve had some extremely cold weather recently, but, of course, it’s been a bit milder—not that I’m a weatherwoman all of a sudden. There was—[Interruption.] Oh, it’s the last day of term. On a serious level, there were news reports recently of a man freezing to death in Birmingham, and now my...
Bethan Sayed: Cabinet Secretary, you may know that I’ve met with quite a few asylum-seeker families recently in Swansea with regard to the awful conditions that many of them are facing with regard to Home Office provision via the company Clearsprings Ready Homes. I was wondering whether you would be able to facilitate a conversation with the Home Office on these terrible conditions, notwithstanding the...
Bethan Sayed: There are numerous examples of animal abuse registers in the US, where two different models are used. The first is an open register, such as in Tennessee, when information on the convicted individual is published online including their photograph, name, address and date of birth. The other is a private register, such as in New York City, which is only available to certain organisations, such...
Bethan Sayed: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. I appreciate that you have to make this statement, because it’s a statutory requirement, but there isn’t much in what you’ve said today that we haven’t already heard in other statements. While I appreciate that you’re putting those measures in place, I think, sometimes, we need to, perhaps, think about, if you’re bringing statements to the National...
Bethan Sayed: No-one would doubt the fact that the Welsh housing quality standard is ambitious, and I would be supportive of that. But, as Assembly Members, we continue to receive a number of complaints about social housing services, for example that work isn’t done in a timely manner, that there’s a poor response from some of the housing services in the context of the fact that it’s the winter...
Bethan Sayed: Yes, exactly, and I think all they’ve wanted to do is to try and tell the council, ‘Look, these are our problems. This is what we’re trying to overcome. We want people to spend their money here in the town centre but currently they’re not.’ We have to get around that and I think sometimes that the intransigence of local authority officials is actually stifling development in their...
Bethan Sayed: I’ll follow your call to arms, Janet—your passion shines through. I think we should be having this debate in relation to how we want our debates to be perceived by the public, and how the public can actually engage with the debates that we have in the Assembly. I say this because I sometimes think that we can come up with quite high-end ideas, but when we talk to people on the street,...
Bethan Sayed: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. I’m particularly concerned about the pension scheme, as has been mentioned previously in this debate. Tata bought Corus, as you will know, for more than it was worth and just before a recession, and it should have done the due diligence and known the liabilities, although those of us who have been involved in other pension issues such as the Visteon pensioner...
