Andrew RT Davies: I obviously welcome the opportunity to speak in this Conservative-led debate today, and importantly to highlight some of the important relationships that the Welsh Government should be establishing, and also mapping out at the start of its term in office, which is for five years. Believe it or not, at the end of this term, 20 per cent of this Assembly term will already have gone. It’s...
Andrew RT Davies: I do not laugh at the spatial plans; I just remember the long and tortuous debates that my namesake, Andrew Davies, when leading those debates in the third Assembly, had Wednesday after Wednesday, Tuesday after Tuesday, in this Chamber. That’s why I laughed when you talked about the spatial plan.
Andrew RT Davies: I’m grateful to the Minister for taking the intervention. I couldn’t agree more with you about breaking down the barriers, Minister, but it’s maybe for us on this side to pose that question and for you as the Minister to hopefully give us some of the solutions. Because since I’ve been here—since 2007—we’ve been pointing out about these barriers, both from the Government’s side...
Andrew RT Davies: They should be agreed.
Andrew RT Davies: Will you take an intervention?
Andrew RT Davies: No, no. You can’t make that accusation.
Andrew RT Davies: I have continued the argument that I made after the referendum that there need to be UK frameworks on agriculture, structural funds and university funding because that is the best way to secure specific budget lines out of the UK Treasury—to make sure that the money flows to Wales that we need. I ask you to support that position because when I’ve put that position forward, you’ve tried...
Andrew RT Davies: I really do regret the language that the Member has used, from slitting wrists to lambs to the slaughter, in a debate that she most probably is finding it difficult to come to terms with. As I said, the referendum has happened. We need to move on. You are right: farmers voted in the majority to come out of Europe because we have an average age of 62 in the agricultural industry, with no...
Andrew RT Davies: Will the Member take an intervention?
Andrew RT Davies: I am grateful for the Member taking the intervention. Given the expansion in the UK economy, as highlighted by the Bank of England, and given the comments by most major economists that, actually, there will be a revaluation of the pound as we go further into the year, given the robustness of the UK economy, I’d like to understand what economic argument he is trying to advance or what...
Andrew RT Davies: Go on.
Andrew RT Davies: I’m not quite sure whether that’s what the leader of Plaid Cymru believes it to be, and I do believe that, obviously, the sentiment is about independence. But I did hear the rural affairs Secretary say that I do need some help in understanding these issues. I would ask the rural affairs Secretary, if she wishes to comment from a sedentary position, why doesn’t she now endorse UK...
Andrew RT Davies: I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate today. It’s a little surreal, to be honest with you, because we have a motion before us that has been endorsed by the two parties that authored the agreement and then an amendment tabled that actually opposes the triggering of article 50 unless certain conditions are met. So, I do find that somewhat bizarre that there couldn’t be that...
Andrew RT Davies: Leader of the house, could we have two statements, please, or maybe even just a letter in the Library, in the first instance from the Minister for finance, explaining the new business rates scheme—the additional money that was put on the table? I appreciate that this was raised some two or three weeks ago, and, in our debate on the Wednesday, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local...
Andrew RT Davies: Cabinet Secretary, I’m grateful for the answers you’ve given to date. Obviously, this is a huge concern and many of the employees also live in the Vale of Glamorgan and across the South Wales Central region. The jobs, historically, at the Bridgend engine plant have been very attractive, well paid, and people have stayed within the plant once they’ve found employment there. There is a...
Andrew RT Davies: Well, obviously, you must’ve been living in a different universe, because we had no proposals for cuts in education at the last Assembly elections. Rather bizarrely, you must’ve been living in a different universe. What we’ve had since Christmas are the programme for international student assessment results; we’ve had the Estyn report that has clearly shown that, on your watch,...
Andrew RT Davies: It’s always someone else’s fault, First Minister, with you, isn’t it? In fairness, the pupil numbers in our schools have remained relatively static, yet we’ve seen in excess of 1,000 teachers disappear out of the classrooms, both in primary and secondary schools across Wales on your watch. What also came to light in the committee last week was that the funding gap between what is...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you, Presiding Officer. First Minister, as I’ve said to you many times in this Chamber, you quite rightly identified education as a priority for your stewardship as First Minister here in the National Assembly for Wales. Last week, in the education committee, evidence was given that showed that the number of teachers in our schools has declined by over 1,000 since 2010. If education...
Andrew RT Davies: Some 10 years ago, my wife was a community midwife, and when I used to hear some of the stories that the community teams would have to pick up on the domestic violence front—from people they would have seen at the end of the week to what they were picking up at the beginning of the week, and the intervening thing that had happened was a major sporting event—it was truly horrific, to say...
Andrew RT Davies: Cabinet Secretary, you alluded to the Welsh Government’s offer of childcare and that being unfolded now as we go forward in the Assembly. I believe this year the pilots are going to start in the various local authorities that you’ve identified as being fit for purpose for those pilots to take place. What type of public information, what type of information, are you going to make available...
