Rhun ap Iorwerth: ...more than anything, following this pandemic. We need to invest in our infrastructure, in healthy and green homes, in public transport, digital connectivity, innovative energy projects, in higher education and research, and social infrastructure, too. We're talking about a programme to transform our nation that will create returns—financial returns to pay off these debts and also social...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I have a question on supply teachers, who do crucial work in schools the length and breadth of Wales, but many of them have found themselves falling between many stools at the moment, as the Minister is aware, and can't access support, having lost their employment during this period. So, may I ask the Minister to publish clear guidance, so that...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: ...away, but not being told, as we've just heard there, that they have to close. Bus operators fearful they'll go out of business, and the long-term effects of that, with needing to carry children to school once this is all over and so on. I appeal, more than anything now, apart from the level of support, for stronger, clearer communication from Government to businesses. That's the one thing...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: ...for the recognition of particular Welsh demographic factors when it comes to measuring the need here in Wales. So, perhaps one of big unanswered questions now. It looks increasingly likely that school closures is now a matter of 'when' not 'if'; for teachers and parents the question of 'when' obviously is very, very important. It would have been good to have a statement from the Minister...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: ...now to give a percentage of that to local government, in addition to what was set out in the draft proposals? Of course, local government plays a key role in providing preventative services, from education to leisure facilities and sports facilities, social services—those things that enable us to keep people out of the more expensive health service and to prevent longer term problems...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: ...whether or not you are showing symptoms—flu-like symptoms—and (b) that isolation means total isolation, if you like, within your own home, not just staying away from your workplace or place of education and otherwise somehow carrying on with your day-to-day business? Secondly, will Welsh Government offer guidance or at least make an appeal to employers to be sympathetic and...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 9. Will the First Minister make a statement on Welsh Government support for educational establishments affected by steps to prevent the spread of coronavirus? OAQ55114
Rhun ap Iorwerth: ...to have medical training in north Wales. It took too long. Now that that medical training is in place, people are seeing the possibilities and are already talking about establishing a full medical school, and also looking forward to having a dental training unit in Bangor to run alongside the medical school. This is something that I would warmly welcome. I'm asking for a commitment from...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: ...than there are people over 75. That contradicts the perception that we may have. But, given those figures, we know that that age group or a percentage of them face huge pressures to succeed in education, they are more likely to face problems such as online bullying than older generations, and they also face a future in terms of Brexit and climate change that they didn't choose for...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: ...towns are in danger—it's as simple as that—because of pollution, pollution from vehicles mainly, in the examples we heard about. John Griffiths also spoke specifically about traffic from the school run and the danger emanating from that. We have to monitor in detail on order to measure far better what is happening outside our schools, and the solution once again is a clean air Act. And...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: ...how can you square that with the real-terms reduction of £400,000 in expenditure on the Welsh language directly? In addition to that, there's a cut of £1.65 million for the Welsh language within schools. I had an opportunity in the Chamber last week to push the Minister for the Welsh language not to cut the budget for Welsh for adults. Now, I know that her view is that perhaps we need to...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Llywydd, for accepting my request to ask a few questions. I have two questions on education—schools education first of all. Now, we talk about this target of 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050, and it's good to see that everyone is working together towards that target. Everyone welcomes the target. We should be able to reach it because the role of schools is so very...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: ...changes to timetables that meet some of the complaints that were made. Having said that, there are still a number of concerns about the availability of trains to smaller stations at the end of the school day and so on. Transport for Wales have admitted to me, ‘No, we perhaps didn’t consult sufficiently with the communities in making these decisions’, and I think the other concerns...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: ...us out of the rut that we've been in as a nation. Investment in Welsh infrastructure is crucially important for the future: infrastructure in order to deliver better public services, including education; infrastructure to connect Wales in order to generate and share prosperity across the county; digital infrastructure to ensure that Wales can play its full part in the twenty-first century...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: ...are loosened slightly, then now is the time to make that innovative change. So, when I see minor amounts praised in the budget in the statement made in December—£2.7 million to help primary school children become healthy and fit; £5.5 million for 'Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales'; and diabetes, much of it relating to obesity, costing some 10 per cent of the whole NHS budget—then I...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: ...spend in other areas too. I met members of the National Association of Head Teachers union this lunch time, as other Members did too, I know, highlighting an inadequate uplift, in their view, for education, and especially additional learning needs. I agree: funding special schools adequately, for example, has a huge preventative potential on wider education budgets, on social care, even on...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: ...to provide more funding, perhaps, to support activities such as those taking place in Bangor in order, for example, to enable them to continue with their work but also to work closely with schools in order to show more clearly the routes into higher education for young carers?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 3. Will the Minister make a statement on the support available to carers who are higher education students? OAQ54742
Rhun ap Iorwerth: ...title is paramount. These opportunities, symbolic but important, don't come along very often—once in a generation, perhaps. Yes, there are far more important things for us to discuss—health, education, poverty and good jobs—but we are the ones who have the honour of dealing with matters like this, and we very rarely do, but today is one of those days. Passing this kind of Bill is...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much. It is wonderful to see the medical school there, or the medical education there developing, at least. Would you agree with me that what I currently see in my constituency, in the Holyhead area—where there are two surgeries that, because of failures to recruit GPs, have had to transfer to the management of the health board, and that causes a crisis in terms of primary...
