Gareth Bennett: Diolch, Llywydd. [Interruption.]
Gareth Bennett: Thank you. Diolch again, Llywydd. Today's debate is on the subject of working from home, which hopefully Members will agree is an interesting topic and worthy of some Chamber time in which to investigate it. We in UKIP think that, in general, allowing more employees to work from home is a good objective, as long, of course, as that is what the employees themselves want to do. So I think we...
Gareth Bennett: Yes, thank you for that answer. I'm glad that you recognise that the act of voting at the ballot box isn't an act of God, it's something that people with informed opinions actually do, and so you do take heed of the decisions, because that isn't the line you generally take as regards the vote of the people in Wales during the Brexit referendum. Now, going back to the precise issue of council...
Gareth Bennett: Diolch, Llywydd.
Gareth Bennett: Thank you. First Minister, if I could raise with you the issue of council tax, I think it's interesting that we are, this month, marking 20 years of the Welsh Assembly, because this 20-year period hasn't been particularly great for Welsh council tax payers. If we look at the figures, band D council tax rates in Wales have increased by 244 per cent since 1996. This is much higher than the...
Gareth Bennett: Yes, of course. It's important to foster interest in many sports, and I'm sure we all wish the Welsh women's team well in their endeavours. The ECB have recently announced a new city-based T20 competition, if I can return to the cricket subject. It is good to see that Cardiff is one of the host venues. One of the problems I think Glamorgan have in appealing to people from all across Wales,...
Gareth Bennett: Yes. Thanks very much for that commitment, Minister, and I'm sure meeting with the English cricket board would be a good idea, and I look forward to a positive outcome from that. I note that, in 2018-19, the Welsh Government allocated £600,000 to Cricket Wales to support both community and high-performance cricket across Wales. Of course, the popularity of cricket has grown amongst people of...
Gareth Bennett: Diolch, Llywydd. Minister, we've had a couple of debates recently about rugby, which is always an interesting subject. However, the cricket season starts in a week's time, so today I wanted to turn my attention to that. Now, as you'll be aware, Glamorgan have encountered some financial difficulty in recent years. Of course, they agreed a deal with the English cricket board not to host test...
Gareth Bennett: Again, yes, there's much in that answer that I would welcome. Grass fires, obviously, are a menace. They can destroy habitats, they kill livestock and they even threaten properties and businesses. First Minister, you did mention the educational side in an earlier answer, which I welcome, as I say. Is there a need for a cross-cutting strategy, going across the various ministerial portfolios,...
Gareth Bennett: I thank you for that answer. I think that that is a good approach, and I look forward to more information on that from the Government as and when you have it. Now, most of these fires, by their nature, tend to occur in rural areas or above Valleys communities. Most of the firefighters involved are, therefore, retained fire officers, meaning that they are people who have other jobs as well....
Gareth Bennett: Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, April is the month where we often experience a rise in grass fires. The vast majority of grass fires in Wales are, unfortunately, started deliberately. Can you outline what the Welsh Government is doing to educate people about the dangers of starting grass fires?
Gareth Bennett: [Inaudible.]—the economic reality of austerity, which you described in the first part of your answer, but it may be true that excessive pay at the top of an organisation may mean that people at the lower levels are not being paid enough. And we do know, from an investigation carried out in 2017 by BBC Wales, that most councils in Wales are paying some of their staff less than the real...
Gareth Bennett: Well, thank you for giving me a timeline, which is useful. Although I accept the point you just made, could I also point out that this is an issue that touches on the sometimes excessive pay of senior council officials on many councils in Wales—many of which are Labour controlled? Can I bring to your attention the fact that two councillors in Torfaen have resigned from the Labour group...
Gareth Bennett: Diolch, Llywydd. Minister, I raised the issue recently of the large amount of taxpayers' money that's being wasted in the long-running Caerphilly County Borough Council offices saga. The response I got from the First Minister was that it was largely a matter for the council itself, which is often the response we get when we raise local government issues here in the Chamber, although oversight...
Gareth Bennett: Thanks, Minister, for your statement today. I do appreciate that for many Members of the Chamber, and several past Members who have been mentioned, this has been a long campaign. It is an emotive issue, so I am mindful of what I say, but I think we do need to look carefully at any proposed legislation in this area. Minister, you say that this proposed legislation merely closes a loophole and...
Gareth Bennett: Well, if we look at some of the types of jobs that have been mentioned before—the utilities—many of these are call centre jobs, and this sector is not particularly well known for good pay or conditions. Many people get taken on as agency workers. There's often a problem of shift work, lack of training and a sink-or-swim mentality for managers as regards worker development. Retail banking...
Gareth Bennett: Yes, thank you for clarifying that, First Minister. Now, you mentioned social care and food, and housing, energy and construction have also been mentioned in the past by your Deputy Minister when we've talked about this subject here in the Chamber, although it's early days for this discussion as yet. Now, many of these jobs are already in Wales, as you pointed out, and many of these jobs,...
Gareth Bennett: Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, a big part of your Welsh Government's economic strategy for Wales now appears to be the development of something that you and your Ministers are calling 'the foundational economy'. This is a phrase that has become popular with academics and politicians in Wales but which, to most ordinary people, means very little. But, even in political and academic circles,...
Gareth Bennett: Diolch, Llywydd. [Interruption.] First Minister—First Minister, a big part of your Welsh Government's economic strategy for Wales now appears—[Interruption.]
Gareth Bennett: I see that you have, once again, tried to evade your scrutiny of local government, which clearly is under the overall oversight of your Welsh Government here at the Assembly. The Caerphilly situation has been dragging on since 2012, so I think it now warrants some public comment from you, bearing in mind as well that one of your previous roles was as local government Minister. So, this...
