Rhun ap Iorwerth: Llywydd, it's a word I've used a number of times today: crisis. The NHS is already in crisis. It was pre COVID; it's always important to bear that in mind. But, of course, the pandemic has exacerbated the situation. But the situation could get even more critical. We now have nurses preparing to leave wards in a dispute over wages, while simultaneously more and more are preparing to leave the...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Tony, a retired child and adolescent mental health nurse, came out of retirement to help during the pandemic, and thank goodness he did. Now on a nurse bank, he says, 'The situation was bad before I retired, but, on returning to work, I was met with excellent nurses describing feeling sick with anxiety before going to work in the morning, and crying when they finished work because they felt...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I hope that I have painted a clear picture for you this afternoon as to why we must reach a settlement on the question of wages and support for nurses. But let me make it even more clear through the words and experiences of nurses and their families, speaking directly. A mother from Anglesey who has two nurses as daughters, one in Wales, and the other in Australia, unfortunately. The one in...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank goodness we haven't faced a shortage of people wanting to become nurses, to come into the profession. We've actually seen an increase, a positive increase, in nursing student places in Wales in every year bar one, I think, of the past decade. On its own, that is great news, but it's a leaking dam. Yes, we've more coming into nursing, but numbers leaving are undoing that, and the exodus...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: There are 3,000 vacant nursing posts in the NHS in Wales. Nurses are leaving the profession. The failure to retain staff is a crisis. And unless these questions around salary are addressed, we will lose more—the crisis will deepen. More and more have been turning to agency work, contributing to the huge agency bill of some £130 million per annum now—a bill that we simply cannot afford,...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 'All strike action ends in the end in negotiation', but how about trying to end the strike action through negotiation? Even UK Government has negotiated, to no avail, but why on earth will the Labour Welsh health Minister not bring everyone back around the table through the Welsh partnership forum that's there for this exact purpose? I pointed out last week that Welsh Government hadn't even...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you, Chair. We're today asking the Welsh Government to support Welsh nurses. We're asking the Senedd to support our statement that nurses deserve fair pay for their work, and we ask Ministers to use all levers possible in order to make an improved pay offer to nurses. We are facing a nurses' strike for the very first time. Nurses, who are carers by nature as well as by profession, have...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: May I make a request for a regular series of statements with regard to the work that is being done to strengthen and reopen Pont y Borth? I've written to the Deputy Minister today. We've heard that work is to start soon on the bridge. We've heard that the bridge will open with a weight restriction early in the new year. We hear that there are issues being considered to mitigate traffic. We...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: That was not my question. I was asking about pay negotiations.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: The Minister knows that's not pay negotiations. She also said last week that she was meeting regularly with the Royal College of Nursing—that's not pay negotiations. The meeting that she has just referred to now is not pay negotiations. The last letter, I believe, that the Royal College of Nursing wrote to the Minister asking for pay negotiations was on 25 October. They still have not...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd. Can the Minister explain why she's refusing to engage in pay negotiations with the Royal College of Nursing?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Yes, you are.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: That point with regard to clarity is very important, I think, from the Minister. I also noted the statement by Rolls-Royce with regard to Trawsfynydd and Wylfa too. I happen to be excited about the renewable schemes, marine schemes, off Anglesey, and I also think that SMR nuclear technology is more suited to Ynys Môn than large-scale nuclear schemes. I tried to get a Wylfa newydd scheme...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much. I have kept in close contact—as close as possible—with businesses, and the whole community of course, since the decision was taken to close the bridge. They all want assurances that everything will be done to reopen the bridge as soon as possible. I would welcome any news from the Minister on that and the work to reopen early in the new year. But, in terms of the...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 1. Will the Minister make a statement on the economic impact of closing the Menai bridge? OQ58714
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will the First Minister make a statement on the discharge of sewage into the sea off the Anglesey coast?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Can I first of all register my support for all RCN members and the way they voted? Nobody wants to see industrial action taking place, and that includes, more than everyone, the nurses themselves. But the fact that this ballot took place in the first place tells us all we need to know about how nurses feel. Now, in driving a decade and more of public service cuts and real-time cuts to nurses'...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you for that response. The Minister will know, I'm sure, that the UK Government has moved modern slavery recently from the Minister for safeguarding to an issue at the bottom of the list of the Minister for illegal immigration and asylum. A constituent has contacted me to voice concerns about this. She's concerned about the risk that it means for victims of slavery. She questions...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 8. Will the Minister provide an update on recent discussions with the UK Government about modern slavery? OQ58666
Rhun ap Iorwerth: —relating to solar. The Minister might not be aware of a scheme called Solar Together on Merseyside. It's a group buying—a sort of bulk buying scheme, encouraging communities to buy solar panels together, in order to bring prices down to encourage investment. Is that something that could be considered in Wales?
