Rhun ap Iorwerth: I'm pleased to be speaking in this very important debate, a debate that highlights just how far, I think, society still has to go to work for people who have brains that work differently. The petition highlights just one case in which the neglect, ignorance and lack of training for staff about learning disabilities have resulted in an avoidable death, but it's one case that's part of a wider...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I’m very pleased to be able to contribute to this debate, even though I wasn’t a member of the health committee during the inquiry itself. This was a subject that I was very eager for the committee to look into when I was a member of it, and I very much welcome the publication of the report on this very important subject. Now, there is a genuine opportunity for us here in Wales to achieve...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Uncertainty needs to end, yes, but for very many businesses, the very threat of Brexit needs to end. Let me read to you from an e-mail I've received from a constituent who runs a small consultancy from Anglesey, with the majority of the business's money coming from the European Union: 'The damage that Brexit so far has done to our business is significant', he says, 'mainly due to the ill...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I'd like you to get a bit more excited about making use of the Welsh economy. Get excited about—
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Well, no, there was a snide remark. That's what I heard first.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 'We remain sceptical', I don't think is good enough when it comes to some of the messaging that I have certainly heard and read around the western gateway project. What we want to see is a Welsh Government that genuinely builds a Welsh economy, and I fear that Welsh Government has been taken for a ride by the Wales Office under Alun Cairns. The Welsh Government has been far too keen, I think,...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Well, Welsh Government, of course, is hailed as a partner in the western gateway project. Within minutes of the launching of the project, the chair that you mentioned referred to 'the powerhouse of the west of Britain'. How do you think that rebranding of Wales as the west of Britain or a part of the west of Britain helps with the work that needs to be done to build a genuine Welsh economy...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd. One of the last things that Alun Cairns did as Secretary of State for Wales—or the Secretary of State for the west of England, as he had become to be known by many—was to establish the western gateway. Where is the western gateway a gateway to, and for whom?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will the Minister make a statement on European programmes relating to skills and employment in Ynys Môn?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I thank the Minister for today's statement. We are discussing how to bring funds into the coffers of local authorities, and we can't ignore the pressures that there are on how that money is then spent. And we can't look at local government finance in isolation in that sense. The Government, in everything it does, in health expenditure, in housing expenditure, does have to behave in a far more...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: May I thank the First Minister for his statement, and thank Lord Thomas and the members of the commission for their staggeringly thorough work in getting to the point where this report was brought forward to us as an Assembly? This is the beginning of a journey, if truth be told. I am pleased that we've had a statement today and an opportunity to make some comments. I'm also pleased that time...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: What we need to do immediately, I think, is to start to ask some of the practical questions about how and why. These questions need to be asked alongside the police investigations that clearly will be beginning immediately. How is it that this lorry was able to pass through Holyhead undetected in this way? Why did those on board, or others associated with this tragedy, decide that...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you for that response, Minister. This is a heartbreaking case, that 39 people felt the need to put their lives at risk in this way and that those 39 people lost their lives in such a horrific manner. My sympathies are with them and their families. No matter how far from home they may have been, the grief is the same. Now, there are many questions arising from this—humanitarian...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you. My supplementary question is slightly different to the one that I had originally intended to ask. I'm pleased to see the Minister for international relations by your side. The original question emerged from a meeting that we had of the cross-party group that I chair, Wales International, where we were discussing the draft international strategy produced by Government. And the...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 7. Will the Minister make a statement on teaching international citizenship in schools? OAQ54605
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 2. What discussions will the Welsh Government hold with the relevant authorities in light of the tragic news that the bodies of 39 people were found in a lorry container in Essex, having entered the UK via Holyhead? 357
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you for taking the intervention. To show that we were trying to get a good deal for Wales, would you agree that when Dominic Raab said a few days ago that this was a cracking deal for Northern Ireland because it retains seamless access to the single market, that betrays somewhat what's going on here?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I've just answered that question.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: No, I must press on, because I want to talk about the port of Holyhead, because we're talking today about the agreement that is on the table and what it actually means in practice. I could talk about what leaving on the terms that are being proposed now through this withdrawal would mean for traffic in Holyhead, for congestion in Holyhead, for the backing up of lorries on the A55 and so on,...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Let me say this: if in this referendum that I want people say, 'We leave'—we leave. [Interruption.] [Inaudible]—from the Conservative benches, 'How many referendums do you want?' If there's a referendum, as we want now—that is it, if it's 'leave'. What our argument is: we did not have the information to be able to make an informed decision. Now, we do.
