David Melding: What measures are in place to improve the consultation process that supports the development and implementation of the Welsh Government's policy programme?
David Melding: Thank you, Presiding Officer. You would have noted that nine Members in addition to myself and the Cabinet Secretary took part in this debate. I think that’s a great sign of the importance people place in this policy area. Simon Thomas started off and referred to the air directive that we base our current policy on, which comes from the European Union. This is key and was referred to...
David Melding: I am very grateful to the Member. And then the prevalence of pollution through nitrogen oxide seems to be increasing, with eight out of 10 monitoring sites in Wales recording an increase last year. I just want to turn to some of the health impacts, because inhaled particulate matter and exposure to nitrogen oxide causes a considerable increase in morbidity. It is calculated that it reduces...
David Melding: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Perhaps, with your indulgence, I could apologise to Sian Gwenllian, who’s still in the Chamber, for getting her name wrong earlier. Esgusodwch fi—I’m very sorry. Air quality needs to be a high priority in this fifth Assembly. It does not currently appear as a specific Cabinet responsibility. I did check the list of responsibilities that the Cabinet...
David Melding: Yes.
David Melding: Well, you know, I’ve said that I think there are advantages and disadvantages with whatever system you use. Frankly, the most elegant thing to do would be to use similar systems. So, there are implications: if you do it for local government, should you be doing it for the Assembly and quite a small legislature, and how would that work? As I say, I don’t have a closed mind, but, speaking...
David Melding: Well, I was going on to say that I think all electoral arrangements have their advantages and disadvantages. Now, for a long time, I’ve thought the disadvantages of first-past-the-post in an increasingly multi-party system, or in Wales where you have—or used to, anyway—a dominant party system, meant that we should look at other forms of election, but it is something I think we need to...
David Melding: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I just say that the Conservative group will oppose the motion? But we will support the amendment, and, if the amendment carries, we will then support the amended motion. The problem I have with Plaid Cymru’s approach is it endorses STV and I think we need to have thorough consideration of how it would operate in practice in the different levels of...
David Melding: I’ve barely started, but I will.
David Melding: Will the Minister give way?
David Melding: He’s asking for a bit of time to see how current processes are working and, you know, he probably wants to avoid too bureaucratic an approach if what we want to achieve is now going to be increasingly likely given new processes. After a year or so, if you want to review things, that’s fine, but will you come back and report on how interdepartmental co-operation in the Welsh Government is...
David Melding: Diolch yn fawr, Presiding Officer. Can I thank you and the Business Committee for selecting this topic for discussion as an individual Member’s debate? I think, from the range of interest it’s sparked and the number of Assembly Members that signed the motion for debate, the interest of this subject is something that marks us deeply in the Assembly. I’d like to start, really, with...
David Melding: I nominate Darren Millar.
David Melding: I nominate Russell George.
David Melding: Well, what happened on Thursday matters. It matters bone, blood and breath, and the ramifications will extend down the generations. It matters here, it matters in Europe, and it also says an awful lot about the state of Western democracies. It also spoke of something very specific, and that was our membership of the EU, but the wider lessons, I think, are for all of us who are in this...
David Melding: First Minister, the stark fact is the Welsh economy is the most exposed in the UK to any possible downturn in trade with the EU or a decline in inward investment seeking access to the single market, and this has to be made known to those now responsible for the Brexit negotiations.
David Melding: Will the Cabinet Secretary give way? I fear I must try to help him out as he’s made a reference to the Conservative group. I don’t speak for it; I speak only as an individual. But talking about the benefits of the European Union, the ‘leave’ side say we’ve given up essential sovereignty and it’s not worth the price, but if we’ve given up essential sovereignty, how on earth are...
David Melding: Can I commend his general statement: that our expectations for looked-after children should be similar, if not exactly the same, as for the rest of the population? I’ve been in this Assembly now a little over 17 years, and I’ve heard repeatedly Ministers say we’re on the cusp of a breakthrough for looked-after children. It’s never quite arrived. It’s all our responsibility—those...
David Melding: Cabinet Secretary, the improvement and maintenance of culverts are key to effective flood defence, and if anyone in valley areas like Cynon Valley has seen how fast those water courses can move, it is truly terrifying. There’s a lot we can do in terms of maintaining culverts through the use of new technology and cameras. This is something that we must do, with great vigilance, and it does,...
David Melding: Cabinet Secretary, I’m glad to note that, but do you think, in a more practical sense, it’s time that in Wales, and in Britain generally, we face up to some of the practical consequences of, for instance, the school run? I think we’re of the same generation, and in my day it was only the ill or the mildly delinquent that were taken to school by private transport. This has a big effect,...
