Joyce Watson: Finally, Dawn Bowden.
Joyce Watson: We all know, First Minister, that the only way that you can deliver any public service is through the staff. And there’s evidence come out this week that the public sector pay cut and freeze over the past decade is such that, now, teachers’ pay has fallen by £3 an hour, police officers’ by £2 an hour, and nurses’ wages have absolutely stagnated. And the result of that at the moment,...
Joyce Watson: I’ve sat in this Chamber now for over 10 years and like others, during that time, I’ve listened to the Tories plead for money—money to be spent on all public services without exception. And I dare say that we will hear those pleas again. I think the best thing that the Tory group, or the Conservative group, over there can do now is actually take that begging bowl to Westminster and ask...
Joyce Watson: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I want to talk specifically to the minimum unit price for alcohol. Some of you may know that I’m a former licensee, and I have witnessed people who have thought, very often, that they were in control of what they drank. After all, they only came in for one, maybe two, pints on a regular basis, after work. But, the next week, they might have three pints, and so it...
Joyce Watson: Will the First Minister make a statement on NHS recruitment in Wales?
Joyce Watson: I want to actually disassociate myself, as I’m sure everybody else here of a reasonable mind would do, from the comments of the previous speaker. But, however, as is set out in the report’s introduction, this was the committee’s first major inquiry, and it was undertaken at a time when we’re experiencing the worst global refugee crisis since the second world war. And politically, it...
Joyce Watson: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. We all know that the clock is now ticking on our exit from the European Union. Therefore, building business confidence is more crucial now than ever it was perhaps before. Therefore, Cabinet Secretary, can I ask whether you have any further details on what the practical set-up will be, and how micro and medium businesses throughout Wales will be able to access...
Joyce Watson: 2. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the Development Bank of Wales? OAQ(5)0178(EI)
Joyce Watson: I thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary, and I do welcome some elements and I will be raising concerns about others. The intensive action area—the IAA—does lie within the region that I’ve represented for 10 years now, so I know only too well what a blight bovine TB is, and the disease has been a chronic and malign affliction for many farmers for many, many years. I am...
Joyce Watson: The first thing I’d like to do is offer my condolences to all those who have been affected by this, but also my thanks, alongside everybody else, to those who helped in the rescue of those individuals and the support thereafter. I don’t want to repeat some of the comments that have been said, but I do think that there is one very obvious statement that has to be made here today, and that...
Joyce Watson: Will the First Minister make a statement on EU nurses working in Wales?
Joyce Watson: Thank you, Jeremy, for giving me time to speak in your short debate today. As regional chair of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians association, I am acutely aware of the value of international partnerships and the benefits that they can and do deliver for all of us. The excellent partnership of the CWPA and the agreed programme of action has helped to deliver progress and change in a...
Joyce Watson: Thank you very much for taking the intervention. I share some of the things that you were talking about, and I hope that you will join me in welcoming the statutory footing that the Minister has talked about and the additional funding. I just want to put on the record that I will be supporting this today; I think that Paul has had the right approach in his conciliatory manner, which he always...
Joyce Watson: Will you take an intervention?
Joyce Watson: The proposal is to agree the motion without amendment. Does any Member object? [Objection.] I will defer voting under this item until voting time.
Joyce Watson: I move on now to item 6, the Plaid Cymru debate on the agriculture industry and Brexit, and I call on Simon Thomas to move the motion.
Joyce Watson: I now call on Mark Isherwood to reply to the debate.
Joyce Watson: I’d like now to call on the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children, Carl Sargeant.
Joyce Watson: I have selected the four amendments to the motion. If amendment 1 is agreed, amendments 2 and 3 will be deselected. I call on the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children to move formally amendment 1, tabled in the name of Jane Hutt.
Joyce Watson: I call on Dai Lloyd to move amendments 2, 3 and 4, tabled in the name of Rhun ap Iorwerth.
