Joe Martin

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1. 3. Questions to the Senedd Commission cy

   6. Beth yw proses y Comisiwn ar gyfer penderfynu pa eitemau sydd ar gael i'w gwerthu i'r cyhoedd ym mannau manwerthu'r Senedd? OQ64769

   Official English translation

   6. What is the Commission's process for deciding what is available for sale to the public from Senedd retail outlets? OQ64769

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2. 3. Questions to the Senedd Commission en

   Thank you, Commissioner. In the Welsh Parliament's bookshop, there are several books that promote the immensely harmful trans ideology to children. This is all the more concerning given that the Welsh Government supports children's access to puberty blockers. Children can't be born in the wrong body and they shouldn't be injected with cross-sex hormones. Those two statements should not be controversial. Commissioner, will you have those books removed from the Welsh Parliament's bookshop?

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3. 10. Short Debate: Full-face coverings are against British values en

   The burqa and niqab are two of the many ways in which fundamentalist Islam is uniquely incompatible with western civilisation. They represent ideas that are oppressive, misogynistic and anti-British. Mass immigration was sold to the public with the assertion that those arriving would assimilate into British culture. That was a lie—we can't even see the faces of thousands of people who've moved here. If two Muslim women live in the same street and they both wear burqas, how are we meant to tell them apart? I can't believe this needs to be said, but being able to tell people apart is an important part of British culture. Proponents will argue that they promote modesty and stop women from being sexualised. For thousands of years, the west achieved the same result—not by oppressing women, but by requiring men to employ an ounce of self-control. If the people who've moved here can't do that, they should live in countries where it's accepted that men can't control themselves. I've also seen children wearing face coverings; anyone who struggles not to feel lust when looking at a child should not be free to walk around in our society. There are countries where that might be normal. This is not one of them. Assimilation means losing religious face coverings, and to encourage that, they should be banned.

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1. 8. Reform UK Debate: Access to HMOs and social housing for foreign nationals en

   Thank you. Foreign nationals living in Welsh and British social housing should be given a grace period of three months to find private housing, after which, they should be deported. It isn't the responsibility of the Welsh or British taxpayer to fund the living arrangements of people from overseas. People moving to the UK should be able to afford to buy or rent a house at normal market rates before they move here. If they can't afford to live here without help from the taxpayer, then they shouldn't come to the UK. Now, Kiera Marshall is right, there is a shortage of social housing in this country, but Reform would build tens of thousands more. But those homes should go to British—[Interruption.] No, thank you. Those homes should go to British people. There is no point in building thousands of new homes when net immigration is bringing in hundreds of thousands of people every year to fill them. The British state and the Welsh state do not exist to provide social housing to the rest of the world, they exist to serve the interests of the British and Welsh people, and putting the people of Britain and Wales first necessarily means putting the rest of the world second. It isn't racist or xenophobic or unkind to regard your countrymen as your priority. Those closest to you get preferential treatment. And as a Welsh politician representing Wales, that is right, that is just and that is normal. [Interruption.] No, thank you. [Interruption.] [Laughter.] I'm sure that was a very funny joke. Thank you. If you ask me to choose between my countrymen, the people of Wales, who are my first and only priority, and strangers, every time, I will proudly choose my countrymen. The people of Wales deserve to be a priority in their own country. They are a unique and special people with a shared history that goes back thousands of years. If, like some of my colleagues, you want to move here and join us, you are more than welcome, but you cannot require the taxpayer to fund your lifestyle. I cannot even fathom—. I cannot even fathom the entitlement required to look at a country with failing—[Interruption.] No. I cannot even fathom the entitlement required to look at a country with failing public services, patients dying in hospital corridors, and think yourself entitled to subsidised housing when you aren't even from there. If I moved to China or Eritrea or Bangladesh and told them to house me, they would flatly tell me 'no'. They are right to do so, and we should do the same. I do not accept for a moment that it's the moral responsibility of the poorest nation in the UK to give up its social housing for people that aren't even from the UK. Once foreign nationals have been banned from social housing, and those who cannot or will not find private accommodation are deported, the allocation system should be overhauled. It should prioritise British workers under the age of 35, young married couples, veterans, victims of domestic violence and care leavers. Being in work should also be a requirement to access any newly built social housing. These measures would go some way to reflect the fact that we live in a world of finite resources and that our own come first. So, I'll be voting in favour of the motion.

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1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Enterprise, Connectivity and Energy cy

   2. Sut y bydd polisi ynni Llywodraeth Cymru yn cefnogi ei hymdrechion i gyflawni ei thargedau sero net? OQ64525

   Official English translation

   2. How will the Welsh Government's energy policy support its efforts to achieve its net-zero targets? OQ64525

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2. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Enterprise, Connectivity and Energy en

   Thank you, Minister. Minister, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere causes temperatures on earth to rise, and that isn't good for any of us. And we need to achieve whatever reduction in emissions is necessary to secure the long-term future of mankind. That's why, in its current formulation, net zero is so frustrating. Deindustrialisation and a reliance on China and India are not long-term solutions. Renewables, again, are not a long-term solution, neither is burying our heads in the sand about the economic and geopolitical problems created by net zero. The only long-term solution to the challenges that we face, both as a nation and as a species, is nuclear power. So, I'm excited about the development of small modular reactors at Wylfa. After that, Minister, what's next for nuclear power in Wales?

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3. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Education and Welsh Language en

   Minister, it's vitally important that Wales's unique culture is not only preserved but nurtured. Access to Welsh-medium education for those who want it will be an important part of that process. More than that, bilingualism is literally good for the brain. It leads to better executive function, better memory, problem solving, and even delays dementia onset by an average of around five years. Of course, Wales isn't the only country that recognises the importance of language in the transmission of culture. There are examples that we can learn from from across the globe. I'd be interested to know if the Welsh Government has learned or is trying to learn anything from Catalonia and the Basque region in successfully promoting bilingualism.

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4. 3. Questions to the Senedd Commission cy

   2. Beth yw cynlluniau'r Comisiwn o ran ehangu Tŷ Hywel? OQ64535

   Official English translation

   2. What are Commission's plans regarding the expansion of Tŷ Hywel? OQ64535

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5. 3. Questions to the Senedd Commission en

   Thank you, Commissioner. Rent on Tŷ Hywel currently costs £2.7 million per year. Can you give any indication of what that might rise to once the proposed construction is complete?

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6. 9. Short Debate: The unacceptable pause in scheduled treatment for trans patients en

   Thank you for giving me some time to speak. I'll respect that, Llywydd, by being as quick as I can and just reading the end of what I wanted to say. The Welsh Gender Service should be closed forever and the doctors in the UK who performed surgeries on children should be imprisoned for what they've done. And if Reform form a government in Westminster in 2029, I'll be making representations to our colleagues there that justice be served to the liars and the butchers responsible for what's happened to what's left of the young people who have had surgery performed.

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1. 1. Questions to the Trefnydd, Chief Whip and Cabinet Minister for Culture and Sport cy

   7. Beth mae Llywodraeth Cymru yn ei wneud i hyrwyddo treftadaeth a diwylliant Cymru? OQ64444

   Official English translation

   7. What is the Welsh Government doing to promote Welsh heritage and culture? OQ64444

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2. 1. Questions to the Trefnydd, Chief Whip and Cabinet Minister for Culture and Sport en

   Thank you. Trefnydd, the Government is committed to the decolonisation of Welsh history, but this represents an attack on Welsh identity. The British empire was ultimately a force for good in the world, and the Welsh played an important role in bringing technology, education, common law, democracy, and Christian ideals, such as the primacy of truth and the dignity of individual human life, to peoples and cultures with no such previous concepts. Indeed, without British colonisation, the institution of slavery would have continued across the globe unabated. Rather than decolonising history, we should just tell it honestly, and that would mean conceding that, during the period of colonisation, the conscience of the British empire was the most morally sophisticated the world has ever known. Trefnydd, will you agree that using contemporary moral standards to judge the empire that actually had to formulate those moral standards first-hand, because they didn't exist previously, is not only bad historical practice, it shows immense ingratitude to those who gave us the ideas that we now take for granted?

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3. 8. Short Debate: Congestion isn't inevitable: How the Welsh Government and Cardiff Council can improve the lives of motorists in Cardiff and the surrounding regions en

   Thank you, Cai, for giving me a minute to speak. Twenty mph speed limits in Wales are uniquely unpopular with the people we represent, and they cost the economy millions of pounds a year. They were introduced to make roads safer, but we now have five years' worth of killed and seriously injured statistics for Wales from 2021 to 2025. Let me read them to you, bearing in mind that the 20 mph speed limit was introduced in September 2023: 2021, 1,011; 2022, 1,016; 2023, 1,126; 2024, 1,091; and 2025, 1,207. Like so many policies introduced by Labour and Plaid, it cost a fortune, it achieved the opposite of what was intended, and the people of Wales are paying the price. The public were right, Reform were right, Labour and Plaid were wrong.

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1. 1. Questions to the First Minister cy

   4. A wnaiff y Prif Weinidog roi diweddariad ar yr hyn y mae Llywodraeth Cymru yn ei wneud i hyrwyddo cydraddoldeb yng Nghymru? OQ64429

   Official English translation

   4. Will the First Minister provide an update on what the Welsh Government is doing to promote equality in Wales? OQ64429

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2. 1. Questions to the First Minister en

   First Minister, the Welsh Government has a target whereby 20 per cent of all newly hired Government employees should be from ethnic minority groups, who themselves only make up 6 per cent of the Welsh population. It has another scheme that pays £5,000 to ethnic minority students who want to become teachers, money that isn't available to students if they are white. These measures, which are themselves explicitly racist, fall under the scheme ironically named the 'Anti-racist Wales Action Plan'. Put plainly, it is anti-white discrimination, and the Welsh people will not sit idly by as we are racially discriminated against in our own country. First Minister, will it be your Government that delivers the return of race-blind meritocracy in Wales?

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1. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Rural Resilience and Sustainability en

   My thanks to the Member for raising this question. Minister, temperatures in classrooms a few weeks ago reached 39 degrees in my constituency, making attendance impossible. So, should the UK and Welsh Governments' success in reducing our carbon dioxide emissions prove insufficient in stalling global climate change as a result of carbon dioxide emissions from countries like China and India, would the Government consider a cost-benefit analysis of intermediate measures such as the installation of air conditioning in schools in Caerdydd Penarth?

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1. 6. Reform UK Debate: Government international spending en

   My thanks to Llŷr Powell for submitting today's debate. The good news is that we've found £9 million for your childcare idea. The bad news is that you are going to have to stop funding some of the most pointless schemes known to man. You'll be familiar with these schemes, of course, because your parties made you defend them during the election campaign, but I should say all of these are real uses of taxpayer money. In one scheme, for example, in Peru, we fought climate change by providing the indigenous Wampis tribe with solar-powered canoes. In Uganda, we advanced gender equality with a beekeeping scheme, somehow. And obviously—[Interruption.] No. And obviously, we send Uganda money to plant trees as well, because we won that competition, 'Who can find the stupidest use of taxpayer money?' We actually asked some Ugandan people what they thought about Wales's scheme to send them money for trees and they said, 'Why are you sending us money for trees?' We then asked the same question to some Welsh students who had been through our underfunded education system, but we didn't get a reply because we had e-mailed them and they couldn't read. [Interruption.] Have a look at illiteracy rates for students graduating. Finally, we spend £5 million on mini embassies across the globe. In India, one of the functions of those mini embassies is to recruit nurses to come and work in our NHS, which is great because it means that the Welsh people who would have otherwise become nurses can instead go on universal credit. I have enquired as to why we can't just have an enormous pit where we burn all the money, but apparently that's not compliant with net zero. Not everyone thinks these are stupid ideas, of course. I did actually receive an e-mail from a constituent the other day in favour of these schemes. I'm joking; I didn't.

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2. 6. Reform UK Debate: Government international spending en

   Yes. And the fact that these schemes have no support amongst the general public does leave me wondering who exactly we're doing all of them for. I have a horrible feeling that we're doing it for Plaid Cymru and Labour politicians, and we're doing it to make them feel good. We're making them feel good in a country where 1,000 people died in hospital corridors last year. Plaid Cymru's brand is the Party of Wales, not Uganda, not Peru, not India. In fact, here's how you can genuinely help those countries: incrementally improve Wales until it becomes an example for those countries to follow, and if they don't, that is their choice. That is what a real nationalist party would be doing, and when I wonder if we can ever work together, that is what I put my hope in, that one day you'll rediscover the fact that you're a nationalist party. I'm a nationalist too, for Great Britain as a whole, but I understand that impulse that you have, and when I look for good in Plaid Cymru, I find it, because I see people amongst them who genuinely love their country. But when you love something, you put that thing first. Only last week you spoke about the vital importance of taxpayer-funded childcare for Welsh children. How important is that to you? Is it more important than overseas spending? In Westminster, the Tory party doubled foreign aid whilst imposing austerity. There are now only seven of them in this Chamber. The same fate awaits any party that insults taxpayers by frittering money overseas on feel-good vanity projects. So, I want to encourage the Party of Wales to be nationalist, to put Wales first. Spend your constituents' money on your constituents. That way, when someone is lying in a hospital corridor and they ask you, 'Are you really the Party of Wales?', you'll be able to say 'yes'.

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1. 1. Questions to the First Minister cy

   5. Pa asesiad y mae'r Llywodraeth wedi'i wneud o risgiau posibl y cynllun Cenedl Noddfa i ddiogelwch y cyhoedd? OQ64186

   Official English translation

   5. What assessment has the Government made of the potential risks to public safety of the Nation of Sanctuary scheme? OQ64186

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2. 1. Questions to the First Minister en

   Defenders of the nation of sanctuary scheme will point to the fact that the primary recipients of aid have been Ukrainian families fleeing Putin's invasion. Whilst I don't know why it's necessary to spend additional money over and above what Westminster already spends to help Ukrainian families, you won't find anyone seriously contending that they're the reason the scheme should be scrapped. But that's because, so far, there have been zero instances of Ukrainian refugees trying to behead people in the streets. The same cannot be said for Sudanese asylum seekers. Simply ask Stephen Ogilvie from Belfast, or the family of Rhiannon Whyte, who was murdered, or any of the 226 women who were raped by Sudanese men in 2024 alone—these being the same men your Ministers Mabon ap Gwynfor and Sioned Williams said Wales must welcome. So, First Minister, what will you do to make sure that when the next inevitable attack happens, it doesn't take place in Wales?

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1. 5. Reform UK Debate: Childcare offer en

   Thank you, Dan Thomas, for bringing the debate forward, and to all the preceding contributors. As opposition, it's our job to scrutinise the Welsh Government’s plans, but this Government has been very cunning. They've outfoxed us, in fact, because they haven't made any plans. You might think that I'm exaggerating, so let me reassure all of you that Plaid Cymru’s deputy leader, Sioned Williams, did in fact say on 19 May, on ITV, on national tv, that Plaid Cymru hadn't even started to plan out their childcare offer. They know that it’s going to be a phased plan, which is reassuring, and they know that it’s going to cost £400 million, which seems like an oddly round number for such a detailed and well-thought-out plan, but beyond that, details were, for some reason, hard to come by. The interviewer did try to help, saying that maybe what the sector needed was more recruitment, more training and more people, but the deputy leader reassured the interviewer that actually what the industry needed was more focus, and they just weren't focused hard enough. And if they did focus hard enough, they'd be able to meet the massive rise in demand for its services that their childcare plan—well, I say 'plan', it’s more of an abstract idea at this point, a sort of childcare notion, if you will—would generate. I must admit that I came away from that interview wishing that ITV were in charge of childcare in Wales and not the Welsh Government. [Laughter.] Okay, so we've heard it from the horse’s mouth that it's unplanned, but is it costed? Well, of course it's costed. No-one would dream of running an election campaign on an uncosted pledge of £400 million, especially if that same party was in the process of trying to criminalise lying. So, can we see where the money's going to come from? No. Can we get a vague indication? No. In fact, stop being divisive. What we've seen as the opposition over the past few weeks has been a masterclass in political deflection from our new and esteemed First Minister, who somehow manages to wriggle out of giving a firm answer to basically any question he's ever asked. I heard that, last week, someone asked him, 'Have you had a nice day, First Minister?' and he replied that there are a number of factors to consider when evaluating whether or not he had a nice day, and that he'd be meeting with key stakeholders to come to a reasoned reply to such an important question, and that we could expect a reply at some point in the autumn. So, it's unplanned, uncosted, but will it work? Well, that does depend on what form Plaid's childcare notion eventually ends up taking, increasing supply of childcare versus subsidising demand. I do have a horrible feeling that Plaid's childcare notion is simply going to consist of printing £400 million in childcare vouchers and calling it a job well done. No-one was expecting that you'd be able to deliver on free childcare immediately. They knew it would take time. But I think there was a hope that you weren't just offering an outline of a policy as a means of winning votes. I want to use this opportunity to ask you to please get your act together. Faith in politics and in politicians is at an all-time low, and that isn't good for any of us. And it isn't good enough to deploy smoke and mirrors when we ask you for details about this policy. We're not asking for them to spite you or to make you look bad. We're asking you on behalf of our constituents who are normal people, who deserve to know how their money is going to be spent.

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1. 1. Questions to the First Minister en

   I'd like to thank the Member for submitting today's question. For years, people have been trapped in unsafe homes, unable to sell, unable to remortgage, living with soaring insurance premiums and, in their own words, fighting for their lives. Let's be clear why this fiasco is still going on: despite the human cost and despite the superhuman efforts of campaigners to secure justice, at every turn, the previous Labour Government met them with warm words and no action. Developers were given voluntary pacts with no teeth, they missed their own targets and faced absolutely no consequences. Four years after those pacts were signed, only four affected buildings are fully remediated, of a total of 161. Labour were happy to send money overseas to fund vanity projects while leaseholders were bankrupted. First Minister, will you commit today to legally binding remediation deadlines, real sanctions for developers who miss them, and finally give the people of Victoria Wharf and across Wales the justice that Labour denied them for over a decade?

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