Andrew RT Davies: Thank you, Presiding Officer. First Minister, on the weekend, there were a series of incidences where ambulances could not turn up to critical incidents. Ben Symons, a 22-year-old, was laying on a football pitch in Cefn Cribwr with a serious back injury. His mother said at the time that there was a disgraceful wait involved, five hours, and that the system is broken. Do you agree with his mother?
Andrew RT Davies: The point I interjected on with Mike Hedges was the ability to build more houses. We're only building about 6,000 a year when we know that we need 12,000. I didn't mention anything about state intervention whatsoever.
Andrew RT Davies: Will you take an intervention?
Andrew RT Davies: You're talking about supply and demand. We know for a fact that we need about 12,000 houses completed every year in the Welsh property market. At the moment, at best, the Government is completing about 6,000, maybe as low as 5,000 in a bad year. We're not even getting close to what the demand is. Surely you recognise that as a problem, and calling for considered planning control permissions...
Andrew RT Davies: One of the examples that was used in that report, First Minister, was children turning up with severe burns and, because equipment was not available, staff were having to put children into sinks to cool their burns or use the showers in the staff changing rooms. That's the level of the challenge in that A&E department, and indeed A&E departments across the whole of Wales. What I would also...
Andrew RT Davies: I accept the point that you've made, First Minister, but last week, you did try and make the point that they had 'moved on', when in fact your opening remarks directing us to their press release last week clearly show that they do want a Wales-wide independent inquiry. But the record will speak and people will make their judgment accordingly. I'd like to raise with you, First Minister, my...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you, Presiding Officer. First Minister, last week I challenged you on your inability to bring forward a COVID inquiry, and there is a difference between the view that I take and you take, and I accept that, and that's a political difference. However, Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru do want that independent inquiry. During your answers to me, you indicated that they'd...
Andrew RT Davies: I'd tread carefully on saying that's she's resigned and trying to use that in a political forum. I understand that she's resigned for personal reasons, which does happen, First Minister, and I'm not trying to say anything to the contrary about the integrity of any inquiry. I happen to believe that an independent inquiry here in Wales, but also on a UK level, would speed up the process to get...
Andrew RT Davies: Stop misrepresenting their view, First Minister. Only today they've repeated the request for an independent inquiry here in Wales, and through you not allowing such an inquiry to happen, they have had to accept that the UK route is the best route for them to have these explored. But I ask you again, First Minister, because you didn't address the first question: why is Nicola Sturgeon wrong in...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you, Presiding Officer. It's nice to see the Deputy Minister shouting from a sedentary position. I hope he speaks as loudly for his patients who are stuck on record waiting lists in his constituency, because I never hear him saying anything about that, I don't. But anytime you want to have a debate on it, Deputy Minister, I'll have that debate with you. First Minister, you travelled to...
Andrew RT Davies: What you forgot to mention, finance Minister, is the £50 billion-worth of support that the UK Government announced on Wednesday of last week that local authorities will be able to benefit from, from the energy price cap. What efforts are you making available to local authorities so that they can draw down this money? And would you agree with me the best way that the UK Government can pay...
Andrew RT Davies: Minister, on two occasions I offered you the opportunity to apologise to the citizens of north Wales, for which you have direct ministerial responsibility, and, indeed, you are a constituency Member for the town of Wrexham. It is a fact that other parts of the United Kingdom, not just England but Scotland, have all but wiped out the two-year waits. They have all but wiped out the two-year...
Andrew RT Davies: Well, Minister, 'sorry' seems to be the hardest word when it comes to talking to the 15,000 people who are waiting two years or more within the NHS in north Wales. Let's offer you a second chance to say sorry: 25 per cent of the population in north Wales are on an NHS waiting list—25 per cent. Will you say 'sorry' to that 25 per cent?
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Minister, last week we had the waiting times out for the NHS in Wales. In north Wales, which you are the Minister directly responsible for, there are 15,000 people waiting two years or more for a procedure. Will you apologise to those 15,000 people who are waiting such long times on the Welsh NHS?
Andrew RT Davies: My final point then, if I may. And only today, we've seen figures come out about female employment in the workplace where, again, in the rest of the UK the numbers are going up, with greater numbers of females employed in the workplace, but, regrettably, in Wales we've seen a declining headcount in the workplace—a 3.5 per cent decline. What is the Welsh Government doing to make sure that...
Andrew RT Davies: First Minister, thank you for your statement this afternoon. It is without doubt the biggest crisis that we are facing in the current climate—the cost-of-living crisis that every household and every business is facing, whether that's here in Wales, whether that's across the rest of the United Kingdom, or indeed across the globe, in fact. There isn't a country that's immune from the...
Andrew RT Davies: I take from your answer, First Minister, that we do not have dedicated surgical hubs here in Wales. I appreciate that you identified three, I think it was, hospitals there that have areas identified for specialist surgery, but they wouldn't fall under the criteria of surgical hubs. Is it your Government's ambition that, should people find themselves on a waiting list for a considerable...
Andrew RT Davies: I appreciate the context is a challenging picture, to say the least, First Minister. Other parts of the United Kingdom have managed to bring the extensive waiting lists that they had for the two-year period down and, in fact, in some cases, eliminated those waits. In Wales, we see in excess of 60,000 individuals on those waiting lists. I had hoped that I would have heard something more...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you, Presiding Officer. If I may, with your permission, put on the record my sincere thanks and my group's thanks to the Commission staff over the events of the period of mourning, and in particular the extensive preparations that went into the King's reception here last Friday? If I could also thank the First Minister for the civil servants who put a huge amount of work at very short...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you, Presiding Officer, and my party's group and I support the motion before the Senedd this afternoon. On hearing the news on Thursday, after seeing the images of the Queen obviously accepting the new Prime Minister and putting her into office, it was news that none of us thought was going to happen within 48 hours of those images coming out. Indeed, a lifetime of service stood before...
