Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you for taking an intervention. In that classroom of yours that you describe, where you will be giving this lecture, will you be instructing or emphasising to those pupils that sticking with your principles is quite important, that if there is a vote in front of you that you agree with, you should, as a matter of principle, decide to vote for it?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will you take an intervention?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I just feel that I have to intervene because you break the last century up into 10-year, 15-year blocks. Isn't is clear that what's happening here is a trend that has been quite clear for the past 50 or 60 years? And you talk about the oceans: ocean warming is a central part of the evidence that we are seeing, proving that climate change is happening and that it's having a disastrous and...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I'm sorry, I would have. Let's be creative and let's use all tools at our disposal to make sure that we do our bit in Wales to tackle climate change.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: What I said—I haven't readdressed this since taking the brief back, but what I've said in the past, and I’ll say it again, is we need to look at other potential answers to that quandary that we have in the south-east, including possibly something based on the blue route. I'm not aligned to the blue route as the gospel for resolving the issue that we do have. What I want to see more than...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: There are several paths that I could pursue this afternoon. The comments that Llyr Gruffydd made about the economic opportunities that would come from developing green industries and investing in retrofitting energy saving equipment in homes, and so on, is something that appeals to me, and is something that I spoke about when I had the economic role in the previous Assembly, but what I want...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Motion formally moved.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Forgive me for getting up too early; I thought you were never going to stop. You—[Interruption.]
Rhun ap Iorwerth: [Inaudible.]—I quoted a number of projects that were all in the Plaid Cymru constituencies, I said that it could pay for the Cardiff to Swansea electrification. Now, yes, they will be in Plaid Cymru constituencies one day, but we're not quite there yet. To deal with your deflections, you make my point for me—you make my point for me by saying that Crewe and getting that connection there...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you for the kind words, and in reference to north Wales and what's in it for north Wales from HS2, you say it's provided the right connections are made at Crewe. We haven't got the assurances that we need on the connections at Crewe. To give some perspective about the costs we're talking about here, the first 6.6 miles north out of London is projected to cost £8.25 billion. That's...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Cabinet Secretary, as you know, the HS2 railway has been designated as a project for England and Wales, even though there isn't a mile of it here in Wales, and even though studies show clearly that it would cost money for the Welsh economy. The designation means that Wales will not have a full Barnett allocation from the original cost of about £55...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I nominate Llyr Gruffydd.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much for that response. On the fourteenth of this month, this railway bridge was demolished after a lorry struck it, and made the structure unsafe. Now, there are gaps where there once was a bridge, and the fact that there is no bridge there is now a threat to any future plans to reopen the rail line. I am convinced that reopening that rail line would be hugely beneficial to...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 7. Will the First Minister make a statement on the future of the railway bridge across the A5114 in Llangefni? OAQ52832
Rhun ap Iorwerth: More often than not, it’s not the number of people who turn up at A&E who cause the winter pressures; more people attend A&E during the summer months. Of course, it’s not much use or help when many people who don’t necessarily need to be in A&E do turn up with a heavy cold, or because they’ve drunk too much. But, even if we prevented that kind of access to our A&E departments, then...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I move the amendments tabled in my name. It is encouraging, I think, that we appear to be moving towards having a more sophisticated understanding, now, that the NHS is facing year-round pressures, not just winter pressures, when extreme weather can generate pressures in the emergency care system. Now, the implications of this realisation are very...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: A rather glib response, I must say, in terms of me inviting a cut in health and social care budgets. My question is: are you in control of what happens to that increase, which I welcome, if it is an actual increase, if it is investment? Now, the danger, of course, is that it's a fire-fighting fund. We've seen it time and time again—£100 million here, £200 million there, in order to plug...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Professor McClelland has looked at the NHS in Wales and how it's run probably more forensically than anybody else and one of her concerns is that your Government struggles to get health boards to do what you want them to do. Now, in the most recent budget, your Government has chosen to add over £500 million extra to health and social care—on the face of it, good news; we all want to see...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Diolch, Llywydd. I'm sure you'll be aware, Cabinet Secretary, of the decision of the highly respected Professor Siobhan McClelland—health economist, health manager; held senior positions on health boards—to leave Wales to seek better care for her husband, who has cancer. She's reported as saying: 'There is neither capacity nor capability in Welsh Government to be making really good health...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you for taking the intervention. Just to add weight to what you're saying, I remind the Chamber that this debate happened in the Petitions Committee on 9 January this year. Just imagine what that time could have been used in doing, in eight or nine months, in doing the re-testing that the experts, the scientists, said they thought was 'a very good suggestion'—I quote. [Applause.]
