Good afternoon, First Minister. I just want to go back to the issues around Dŵr Cymru, if I may, please. In just two years, people have seen their average water bill rise by over 30 per cent, yet this has not translated into clear improvements in water quality. England and Wales remain the only countries in Europe to have fully privatised water and sewerage services. At the same time, senior pay, as we've heard, remains extremely high. The previous chief executive of Dŵr Cymru received an annual salary close to £900,000. The current, new chief executive, Roch Cheroux, who joined from Sydney Water in Australia—another large water company, which has faced ongoing challenges with sewage overflows and water quality—his salary is going to be between £420,000 and £460,000. I think that is pretty shameless. So, I would like to ask you what action you will be taking in order to address both the disparity in our water bills increasing and the pay that we're seeing for the senior executives, and ensuring that we get improved water. Diolch yn fawr iawn.
Contributions
147 contributions on record. Newest first, by sitting day. Page 4 of 4. Counted by Siambr
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Good afternoon, Trefnydd—welcome to the role. Could I ask, please, for a statement from the Deputy Minister for Public and Preventative Health on the urgent gaps in gambling harms here in Wales? Following the introduction of the gambling harms levy, £1.3 million in funding was awarded entirely to Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. But since April, the newly funded service has been unable to meet the needs of all referred clients, leaving dedicated third sector organisations to pick up the pieces and self-fund treatments. Equally concerning is the continued delay by Public Health Wales in establishing prevention commissioning arrangements. With around two people every day in the United Kingdom dying by suicide linked to gambling harms, timely access to support truly can mean the difference between life and death. So, I wonder if you could take that back to the relevant Deputy Minister. And it is great, actually, to see all of the Cabinet and Deputy Ministers here listening to these questions. So, I do hope that we're able to get answers and responses to our statements. Diolch yn fawr iawn.
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Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd, and good afternoon, Cabinet Minister. Welcome to your new role. I just wanted to ask about social care. I know you and I have both raised this issue in the previous Senedd. We know that, right now, 1,275 people are stuck in hospital beds unnecessarily. They are waiting for social care, either for delivery of the services or for assessments. These people, the ones deteriorating in wards when they should be at home, are the ones that need urgent results. We know that the Welsh Local Government Association has projected a social care funding gap of over £200 million this year alone, yet the previous budget provided only £180 million across both health and social care. In November, your good self described social care as the most underfunded and overlooked pillar of Welsh healthcare, and you were absolutely right. So, could you please outline exactly what your response is to those people stuck in hospitals right now? Diolch yn fawr iawn.
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Prynhawn da i chi, Brif Weinidog, a chroeso mawr i'r swydd hefyd. Diolch yn fawr iawn am osod allan y blaenoriaethau, a dwi'n eu croesawu nhw i gyd—
Official English translation
Good afternoon, First Minister, and a warm welcome to your new role. Thank you very much for setting out your priorities, and I do welcome them all—
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—particularly the one on child poverty, which we've touched on today, and the cost of living, the NHS, childcare. Where you move with real pace and urgency on these issues, you'll find in me a constructive partner. I want to speak for those not in the Siambr today: the young people who can't see a future for themselves in Wales, the families who dread opening their bills, and the carers holding together a social care system running on empty. One point two million people in Wales didn't vote 12 days ago, not out of apathy, but because they have lost faith in a system here in Cardiff bay that can't find its way into their lives. If we want the people of Wales to believe things can be different, that we can tell them that NHS waiting lists will be different in two years' time, that we can tell them that child poverty will be reduced, that we can tell them what progress we can make at the end of this Senedd term, then we need targets, something that many of us in the last Senedd asked for. So, may I ask you, Prif Weinidog, when will you be setting out the clear targets that your Government will be making in these key areas? Diolch yn fawr iawn.
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I second Huw Irranca-Davies.
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Sources
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