2. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:52 pm on 19 March 2019.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Helen Mary Jones Helen Mary Jones Plaid Cymru 2:52, 19 March 2019

Trefnydd, further to the points raised by my colleague Leanne Wood, I'm very grateful to the Deputy Minister for equalities for her written statement in response to the dreadful occurrences in New Zealand and now, of course, in the Netherlands. However, I would ask Government to reconsider whether we could, in fact, have this presented as an oral statement to enable us to scrutinise and to further challenge the Government on what actions are being taken to counter far-right extremism and extremism of any kind.

Of course, the written statement sets out a lot of the existing work that's already going on and that's work that, certainly, all of us in Plaid Cymru would strongly welcome, but the Deputy Minister in her statement refers, of course, to the vigil that was organised on Friday by the Muslim Council of Wales. I was very pleased to see the First Minister and other senior politicians there. I was very glad to represent Plaid Cymru. The Deputy Minister, I'm sure, will remember us being very strongly challenged by one of the young Muslim speakers, saying, 'You have to do better'. And I'm afraid that I rather feel that what we've got in the written statement is a statement of what has already been done, and it is good, but I think it's incumbent upon us across the political spectrum to provide reassurance, but also to look at other additional actions. I, for example, would be very interested to see the Government committing to funding some research to look at what are effective strategies for dealing with extremism of all kinds and to counter its growth, because we know that some of the current strategies being taken, for example through the Prevent programme, are not always successful.

So, I would ask if you could possibly reconsider—. I mean, ideally, a debate in Government time would be best because we can contribute fully, but, failing the time for a debate—and I appreciate how much time pressure there is in this Chamber—and if a debate is impossible, I would ask the Deputy Minister to bring the written statement as an oral statement so that we can ask further questions.