Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Assembly Commission – in the Senedd at 2:30 pm on 5 July 2017.
I’d just like to add my support to Huw Irranca-Davies’s proposal, and I welcome your commitment across the board, Presiding Officer, to opening up politics in this institution. One of my own priorities that I pledged prior to being elected was about making our politics and our politicians much more accessible—not just myself, but actually how we open up opportunities to get involved and understand. I think Huw made some valid points about actually making it accessible to everybody, not just for people with the means and with the contacts to do so. I think it’s right and proper that we try to find a way so that at least we are able to pay interns, and, if possible, it should be a living wage. I think one of the things you touched on is, currently, the inflexibility of our staffing budgets, which don’t allow Members to be able to do that should they wish to. And I think it’s something that we need to actually get the remuneration board to consider. I think one thing I’d like to ask, building on what my colleague Huw Irranca-Davies said about the possibility of shorter-term scholarships, perhaps—I’ve seen other politicians elsewhere looking at the idea of trying to do apprenticeships, or something similar to that work-based learning. So, at a younger age, allowing people to come in, and linking with FE colleges and other training institutions, to see whether we can do that. So, I’d ask that that, perhaps, be given further consideration.