Siân Gwenllian: How exactly will the progress in provision contribute to the strategy for 1 million Welsh speakers? That is, do you have a specific target within the education field for three to four-year-olds in terms of how much of a workforce you will need in order to provide bilingual education in the future?
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you. I move amendment 3 in the Rhun ap Iorwerth. Even though this debate is about services that are provided for older people, it is of interest to us all, of course, and for the sort of country that we want to create in Wales. What sort of country would we like to grow old in? Well, that’s the question that we all need to be considering. The report underlines the value of having...
Siân Gwenllian: I’m going to declare an interest before speaking on this, because I have a number of family members working in the creative industries. But I do have a number of questions that I would like to raise, as it has become evident that the Welsh Government are considering a bid for millions of pounds from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David for a project that includes relocating 55 S4C...
Siân Gwenllian: I’m sure you would agree with me that we need to be entirely clear and entirely transparent on this case. There is quite some interest in it. You mentioned that there was a financial deficit for this plan. When did that emerge, and is that different to the negotiations that have been taking place over a period of two years? Are we talking about a more recent development in terms of this...
Siân Gwenllian: The national hotline service, Live Fear Free, is located in my constituency as it happens, and yesterday I had an opportunity to visit this important resource. And by the way, this is an example of a bilingual service that serves the whole of Wales from beyond Cardiff, in a very successful way, and the service has won a number of notable awards. Ninety-six per cent of those who phone the...
Siân Gwenllian: What is the First Minister doing to change the perception that the Welsh Government is only relevant to Cardiff and south Wales?
Siân Gwenllian: This year, Carmarthenshire County Council, under the leadership of Plaid Cymru, introduced a scheme to provide 1,000 new affordable houses over the next three years. As part of the scheme, they’ve got different methods of doing this: managing additional tenancies in the private sector, bringing more vacant homes back into use, and also buying new private homes in order to put them out to...
Siân Gwenllian: We need between 15,000 and 18,000 additional Welsh speakers every year, over a period of 30 years, if we are to reach the aim of 1 million Welsh speakers. And that is on top of addressing the number of people who leave Welsh communities and Wales. The role of education is key in getting to that target. By now, the vast majority of people who speak Welsh have learnt it at school. Compare that...
Siân Gwenllian: I also welcome this report on the state of nature, a report that has been brought together by over 50 nature groups, and the second important report to provide an evidence base on the state of our natural world and also provide a basis for doing something about it and for making decisions in Wales. As Simon said, it is not comfortable reading in parts, but there is a need for the Government...
Siân Gwenllian: Will the Minister provide an update on developments at Bryn Cegin Business Park near Bangor?
Siân Gwenllian: Will the First Minister make a statement on apprenticeships in Wales?
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much, and thank you for the debate. I do agree with the first speaker, Janet Finch-Saunders, that we do need to be accountable to the people of Wales. For me, improving the quality of public services for future generations is a clear way of being accountable to the people of Wales, and shows our commitment to that. There is no deal with Labour. What’s happened is that Labour...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Public services of a high quality are central to Welsh life. This is the glue that binds our communities together. Plaid Cymru has always stood for public services, for the people who provide them, and for the communities and homes that rely on them. The public sector is a crucial partner for the private sector, to make Wales a more prosperous, fair and...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you. It’s a pleasure to make a contribution as a member of the committee. I welcome the important piece of work that the committee is to carry out on refugees, asylum seekers and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. We have almost 3,000 people in Wales seeking refuge, which represents 0.1 per cent of the population—a very small figure, but an important and vulnerable cohort of...
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much. In the narrative on the budget that was announced yesterday, you allude to the fact that the Government will take further steps to reduce the administrative burden on local authorities, by combining grants and viring funding from specific grants to unhypothecated funds, through the revenue support grant. What steps have already been taken to do this?
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you. As a former member of Gwynedd Council’s cabinet with responsibility for finance, I’m very pleased to see that you have now started to amend the formula and that the rural element of social services expenditure can vary and be an additional pressure, of course, on councils covering rural areas. There are many other ways of amending the formula, and several groups, including the...
Siân Gwenllian: I see that the formula has been revised. Could you elaborate, please, on how exactly that has been done?
Siân Gwenllian: First of all, I wish to thank the Cabinet Secretary for presenting the draft budget yesterday. It was good to see a number of the Plaid Cymru priorities being reflected in it, including an additional £25 million for local authorities. As you know, local authorities across Wales have suffered serious cuts to their funding over the years with their resource budgets being reduced by £461...
Siân Gwenllian: Will the Minister make a statement on workforce plans for the Welsh Revenue Authority?
Siân Gwenllian: Thank you very much and thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this debate in order to discuss the Welsh Language Commissioner’s annual report. I would also like to thank the commissioner and her team for their work during the year. This is a report looking back, and, as important as that is, we were eager to move the debate forward. That is why Plaid Cymru tabled a number of...
