3. 3. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:46 pm on 28 June 2016.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 3:46, 28 June 2016

We’ve just had the beginning of a very important discourse on the momentous and terrifying decision taken last Thursday. I wondered if it’s possible to fit in, before the summer recess, three further debates on specific areas that are posed by the Brexit decision. One is on the future of our fisheries, and how we might protect them in light of the fact that we only have one boat at the moment to protect the whole of our coastline.

Secondly, the implications for all our universities through the potential loss of Horizon 2020 funding—we think about the important research going on at Cardiff University to investigate the causes of dementia, bipolar disease and other important diseases linked to the workings of the brain, and the fact that these are obviously universal diseases, and the results need to be shared across all nations. So, the importance of, hopefully, being able to maintain that leadership across Europe—that leadership and collaboration—and how we might be able to do that as we take forward these negotiations.

The third is on the future of our farming, in the light of the fact that we still import 40 per cent of our food, which of course is going to go up as a result of the massive reduction in the value of the pound against other currencies, and what opportunities may be available to farmers from this threat to increase both food and agriculture growing so that we do not have to have such expensive imported food.