Dawn Bowden: Can I thank Tom Giffard for that question? Certainly we're aware of the reports in the press that the WRU is exploring options for a change in their structure. You'll appreciate that I and my officials meet with the WRU on a fairly regular basis and one of the things that we do talk to them about is the ongoing financial sustainability of the WRU and the regions. But as you've already said,...
Dawn Bowden: The driver shortages are, of course, compounding wider domestic and global supply chain problems, leading to widespread cost inflation and longer delivery times for a broad range of goods. At present, we believe that no particular sector of the Welsh economy faces severe risks from supply problems, but the resilience of the Welsh supply chain will remain fragile as we emerge from the winter...
Dawn Bowden: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd, for that. Can I thank the committee for their report and for tabling this debate, and for their continued engagement on this matter? As a Government, we absolutely remain concerned about the ongoing HGV driver and wider logistics sector labour shortages, which, as Paul Davies highlighted in his opening comments, have been exacerbated by issues and restrictions...
Dawn Bowden: And I'd like to start by perhaps giving a few good examples of where this approach has been successful and then briefly explain how Welsh Government is currently working with partners at a strategic level to address some of these shared concerns. So, there are, for example, conversion schemes that respond to the social value of religious buildings, with new uses that deliver community...
Dawn Bowden: Thank you, acting Presiding Officer. Can I thank Members of the Senedd for bringing forward this really important debate on the issue of closure of religious buildings throughout Wales, and for the passion with which all of you have spoken on the issue—an issue that I think is of concern to all of us? Because we all have these buildings, don’t we, in our constituencies. Alun Davies...
Dawn Bowden: I must also add that Newport has been the training base for some outstanding athletes: Paralympians Jordan Howe, Rhys Jones and James Ledger, all trained by Christian Malcolm in the city; and many cyclists who have trained at the Geraint Thomas national velodrome, including Paralympic silver medallist James Ball. And at this point I'd like to personally wish those who've been selected to the...
Dawn Bowden: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Can I thank John for leading the debate this afternoon and for Jayne's contribution as well? I recognise John's passion for sport and leisure, and Jayne's, actually—she's a big rugby and football fan, I know—but certainly John has always been a strong champion for the various clubs and sporting facilities in his constituency, and I think he enunciated that quite...
Dawn Bowden: I think we need to—. Again, you need to listen to the rest of what I'm going to say, because I am dealing with how I feel that buildings like this do need to be dealt with. I do recognise that what I've said so far is not the answer that the campaigners want to hear, and I know that they have requested a peer review by heritage organisations in England and Scotland, but further review is...
Dawn Bowden: Okay. If I carry on, I may cover some of those points. But the conclusion was that, unfortunately, the criteria are not met in this instance. The assessment—contrary, Darren, to the point that you raised—did recognise the historical importance of the introduction of intermediate schools for girls, but architecturally, this building has undergone extensive change, both historically and in...
Dawn Bowden: Thank you. Can I first of all thank all those Members who have spoken in this debate this afternoon, and for highlighting the strength of feeling towards this former school? And I do understand the strength of feeling that has been expressed, and I've had a similar issue myself, in my own constituency, with the Hoover building, which is hugely important to Merthyr Tydfil for all the reasons...
Dawn Bowden: Okay. Well, thank you for that question. You will have seen that, within the culture division, we have allocated an additional £600,000 in the budget specifically to invest in this area of equality of access, whether it is through digital means or any other means, and we're looking to create innovative programmes of training and support for local museums, for instance, to develop their...
Dawn Bowden: I have to say I absolutely share the Member's concerns about the current position with the licence fee. I've met both with BBC Cymru Wales and with S4C and discussed the fee settlement, and my concern—I think when you raised this question at the time—then was the direct impact that this would have on Welsh language programming. We know that the BBC provides a lot of input for S4C as well,...
Dawn Bowden: You got fooled by my little sentence in Welsh this morning, didn't you?
Dawn Bowden: Okay. Sorry.
Dawn Bowden: The first thing I would say is this is very interesting, isn't it, to hear this from the unionist party that is now talking about an English inquiry? This is not an English inquiry, this is a UK inquiry of which Wales will be part, and there will be a very specific Welsh element to that inquiry that the First Minister has talked about in this Chamber many times, and has been very specific in...
Dawn Bowden: I think you need to look at it in the context of what we were doing. This was one of a suite of measures. It wasn't a stand-alone measure, that we just introduced COVID passes. It went along with, as you say, the vaccination programme. It was part of—. Having a COVID pass was encouraging people to have the vaccination. It also sat alongside other measures, including social distancing and...
Dawn Bowden: I thank Tom Giffard for that question. I think the COVID passes did what they set out to do. At the time that COVID passes were introduced, of course, we were in the middle of a significant rise in COVID cases. We then saw, on the back of that, the omicron wave, and we had to do something to try and get some confidence back into the sector. So, in the areas where we used COVID passes, they...
Dawn Bowden: We must have a clear approach for delivering on that commitment. I'm focused on investing at both elite level and at the community, grass-roots level for all the reasons that you set out in your speech. Our investment at elite level, investing in world-class sports facilities to support our nation's sporting success on the global stage, is key to inspiring the next generation. We know that...
Dawn Bowden: Thank you. Thank you very much, Llywydd, and thank you, Mabon, for bringing this debate forward. This is a subject very close to my heart, and what I would say, I love the title of the debate: 'The more I practise, the luckier I am', because all I can think is that all the teams that I support clearly don't practise very much because they're not very lucky, that's for sure. But it is an...
Dawn Bowden: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, and can I thank Russell George for raising the Montgomery canal project with us today? I know he's long championed this project, and has again highlighted the achievements of the many enthusiastic local volunteers who give so much of their time, energy and skills to the canal restoration project, which has been running now for many decades, as we've heard. It truly is...
