Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:43 pm on 18 January 2017.
Llywydd, I entirely agree with the point that the Member makes. Of course, facility time pays dividends for employers. It was a point made by the WLGA yesterday in the statement they put out welcoming the Bill. That is because employers recognise the work that trade union representatives up and down our public services do every day. It is a point I made in replying to the Member for Merthyr and Rhymney. In my experience, as a Minister at the time with responsibility for one of our great public services, the smooth running of those services, the solving of problems in those services, and the corralling of evidence from employees of where the service could be made better—those things were immensely improved by the availability of local representatives, absolutely dedicated to those public services and able to bring those matters to the attention of employers through sensible and effective use of facility time.