Rhun ap Iorwerth: I was wrapping up, but, in a couple of seconds, yes.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to point out that our motion today made that commitment to move towards that social partnership Act. There's something very strangely tribal in the fact that you remove our commitment to asking for a social partnership Act and then put it in yourselves. Why not just support what the trade union movement was saying through our motion today that they...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. As spokesperson for Plaid Cymru on the economy, what I hope or what I’m trying to do consistently is to try to develop policy and hold the Welsh Government to account as part of that work of strengthening our economy and making Wales more prosperous. But the worker has to be at the heart of that, not just because ensuring the worker’s rights is the...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Both my parents, as it happens, became union leaders, so it was perhaps no wonder that joining a union, the National Union of Journalists in my case, was a pretty natural step when I started in the world of work. The value of unions was clear to me then, as it is now. Unions are good for pay and well-being levels, for job security. Where you have unions, good training is more likely to take...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I nearly withdrew my name from this debate after hearing David Melding talking about Goronwy Owen and me not planning a speech about Goronwy Owen, but we'll say that I was going to do that but there's no point in doing it because David Melding has already done it. [Laughter.] I'll speak briefly as chair and one of the founders of the cross-party group on Wales international. It's a group, for...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: You say that you’re disappointed that people are waiting too long. It’s worth taking a moment just to think what exactly 'too long' means in this context. I wrote to the Betsi Cadwaladr health board and received a response on 8 April. I wrote on behalf of a patient waiting for a new knee. The response said that some 2,200 patients were awaiting orthopaedic treatment and that waiting...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: One cost-effective way of improving road networks is to find joint investment, and it's possible occasionally. There has been some talk about getting the National Grid to contribute to the cost of a new Menai crossing in order to carry cables as part of the Wylfa Newydd development—a bridge that would allow safe cycling to work to Parc Menai, for example, for the very first time. Now that...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: May I thank the Finance Committee’s clerking team and the Chair, Llyr Gruffydd, for their work in drawing this report together? This is an area that is new to us as a committee, of course, as well as being new to us as a Senedd and as a nation. We have been learning and developing our own expertise, as we have dealt with these taxation issues and in preparing to implement fiscal devolution...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Unfortunately, the environment Minister has had to leave the Chamber, but I had hoped to thank her, in her presence, and her officials for the way they worked with and Bangor University after I’d suggested that we should work together on a way of saving the Prince Madog ship, and to turn it into a research vessel for Wales on maritime issues. I understand that those discussions with the...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Referring back to your first words, I admire your positivity in saying that the increase in R&D spending in Wales is matching the increase in other parts of the UK. Let me try to illustrate it. Wales has increased that much from that point, whereas the rest of the UK has increased that much from a point up there. We need to be aiming for parity with other parts of the UK. Let's look...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I'm grateful for that response, and I certainly also share the concern about the effects of leaving the European Union on future R&D funding in Wales. R&D funding comes from many different sources, of course, and business is by far the biggest source of funding, but let me look at higher education. Recent figures show UK higher education R&D spend in total of around £6.5 billion. Break that...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you, Llywydd. The world is changing, the economy is changing with it, and one change is that the information economy is becoming more and more important, and in that regard expenditure on research and development will become more and more important. That’s how you generate new ideas and new devices that will be the basis for a new generation of businesses. So, can the Minister give an...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will you take an intervention?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you for taking the intervention, but can you not understand that in the case of Ynys Môn, for example, it's pretty much exactly 50:50? Things can change from one day to the other, almost, and to suggest that we are ignoring what was said and what the result was of that referendum—what on earth have we been doing for the past three years other than trying to find ways of making it...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Yes, that’s entirely true, and the plaque is still on the wall in Bangor rugby club marking that. A little over 10 years ago, the WRU made a mistake in relation to rugby in north Wales. I know because I was a great supporter of Llangefni Rugby Club at that time, which won promotion to the second division of the national league. And the WRU’s decision was not to promote them, but to demote...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: ‘Theoretically, the Scarlets is the region covering the north’.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: So, it isn’t good enough. And whilst I realise that there are financial limitations on our game in Wales, particularly compared with England and France, for example, if we are serious about making the game a national game, then we must ensure that it’s a professional game at a national level too. And the response of north Wales to the Wales under-20 games in Colwyn Bay is proof of the...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much. I’m going to speak about rugby as the game of the whole of Wales. And as everyone else has done, I will declare a series of interests. As one who is going to speak of rugby as a pan-Wales game, I will declare that I was born in the south Wales Valleys and brought up in Merionethshire and on Anglesey. I will also declare that I am a youth coach and a volunteer at...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Well, the first of those public consultations was held in public, but, of course, some opposition was expressed to the idea of having a radioactive waste disposal site in Swansea, and then it was changed to be a webinar rather than the public meeting that was scheduled to happen in Llandudno. There are certain people in my constituency who have raised concerns that there is an attempt here by...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 10. Will the Minister make a statement on Radioactive Waste Management's current consultation on a location for a geological disposal facility? OAQ53642
