Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, darperir cyllid ar gyfer pyllau nofio a chanolfannau hamdden i awdurdodau lleol drwy'r setliad llywodraeth leol. Er gwaethaf y sefyllfa ariannol heriol, rydym wedi cytuno ar fuddsoddiad ychwanegol sylweddol i lywodraeth leol ar gyfer y flwyddyn ariannol nesaf, a bydd hynny'n galluogi awdurdodau lleol i barhau i ddarparu'r gwasanaethau y mae eu hangen ar eu cymunedau.
Mark Drakeford: Wel, diolch i'r Aelod am y pwynt olaf yna. Yn aml mae'n anodd datgysylltu ble mae arian sy'n dod i Gymru drwy gyllideb yn deillio, oherwydd bod arian yn cyrraedd trwy un llinell ariannu ac yn diflannu trwy doriadau mewn llinell arall. Yn y pen draw, Llywydd, fel y gwyddom, caiff y penderfyniadau ynghylch arian a ddaw i Gymru eu gwneud, nid yn Whitehall, cânt eu gwneud yma, lle y dylid eu...
Mark Drakeford: Diolch i Mabon ap Gwynfor am y cwestiwn. Dwi wedi clywed am y problemau maen nhw'n wynebu yn Harlech, ac, wrth gwrs, rŷm ni'n agored i unrhyw drafodaethau fydd pobl leol eisiau eu cael trwy'r cyngor lleol, ac hefyd trwy Sport Wales. I ddechrau, rhywbeth lleol yw e, a'r trafodaethau cyntaf, mae'n bwysig iddyn nhw eu cael gyda'r awdurdod lleol. Os oes rhywbeth allwn ni ei wneud, wrth gwrs,...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, mae natur wledig etholaeth yr Aelod yn ei gwneud yn bwysicach fyth i'r bwrdd iechyd wneud y mwyaf o'r cyfleoedd clinigol a ddarperir gan dechnoleg heddiw i osgoi teithiau diangen, gwella effeithlonrwydd a darparu mynediad hyblyg at ofal iechyd yng Ngorllewin Caerfyrddin a De Sir Benfro.
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, diolch i'r Aelod am dynnu sylw at y gwaith sy'n dal i ddigwydd wrth ymgynghori â'r cyhoedd ynglŷn â dyfodol ysbyty newydd i Fwrdd Iechyd Prifysgol Hywel Dda. Roedd yna gyfarfod ymgynghori, rwy'n deall, yn Hwlffordd yr wythnos diwethaf, ac mae un wedi'i gynllunio yn Saundersfoot ddydd Gwener yr wythnos hon. Mae'n bwysig iawn bod y digwyddiadau ymgynghori cyhoeddus hynny—....
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I thank Jayne Bryant for the question. There are many examples of social prescribing services in south-east Wales, including the Ffrind i Mi project, which supports those who are lonely or isolated. Recent research demonstrates a clear year-on-year increase in referrals and use of social prescribing in all parts of Wales.
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I thank Jayne Bryant for that. And I've been fortunate enough to have a number of opportunities to visit Newport and to see the sorts of projects to which Jayne Bryant referred. In fact, I was with John Griffiths only on Saturday at the Maindee Triangle, where the Ffrind i Mi project operates, and not only was I lucky enough to be at Tredegar House for the Growing Space...
Mark Drakeford: Well, I thank Natasha Asghar, Llywydd, because she makes an important point, and it's one that's been made a number of times on the floor of the Senedd, that the future of health services has to be based on increased use of those contemporary opportunities that developments in technology and artificial intelligence bring us. We learnt a great deal of this during the COVID pandemic, and, as...
Mark Drakeford: Diolch i Heledd Fychan am y cwestiwn. Llywydd, mae gan Lywodraeth Cymru statws cyfranogwr craidd ym modiwlau 1, 2, 2B a modiwl 3 o’r ymchwiliad cyhoeddus i COVID-19. Drwy ein statws cyfreithiol fel darparwyr deunyddiau, mae Llywodraeth Cymru yn cyflenwi llawer iawn o dystiolaeth fel y gall yr ymchwiliad graffu’n briodol ar y camau a gafodd eu cymryd yng Nghymru.
Mark Drakeford: Wel, Llywydd, the Member's allegation is both offensive and absurd. Of course the efforts that are being made are not some conspiratorial effort to change the number of people who died from COVID here in Wales. What an utterly, utterly absurd allegation to make here on the floor of the Senedd. The efforts that are being made are led by clinicians—are they part of your conspiracy as well?...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I certainly agree about the importance of digital investment in the health service, and, here in Wales, we have a national digital service, there for many years. I don't accept what the Member said in one of his throwaway remarks about Wales 'lagging behind'. In fact, we have shown the way in Wales as to how a genuinely national service can tackle some of the very real issues...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I don't accept at all that those things went unnoticed, because the Minister and officials were in very regular dialogue with the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, including the board. The board has responsibilities. You don't discharge your responsibilities simply by telling somebody else that you've got a problem. You have an obligation, as a board, to address the...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I think the leader of the opposition must allow me to answer his questions, rather than to tell me in his question what I have said. It's my answers that lie on the record, rather than his interpretation of them. First of all, let me say that I do share what the leader of the opposition said about the many years of distinguished public service that the former chair of the board...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, let me return to the leader of the opposition's first questions, because he asked what support the Welsh Government provided to the board. So, let me put them on the record again. The Welsh Government supported the board through financial assistance—£82 million over and above what the board would otherwise have had available to it. Secondly, the Welsh Government corralled a...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I believe that the position may have moved ahead a little today. I am relying simply on a newspaper report of the end of this morning. The Guardian is reporting that the Environment Agency has turned down the Thames Water plan and instructed it to return to the drawing board and to come forward with a better plan, including the plan to extract water from Wales via the River...
Mark Drakeford: Well, I don't think it probably does mean anything actually here today because there are existing commercial, contractual relationships in place that govern the price of water today. The leader of Plaid Cymru is right to say that the Welsh Government has a direct interest in how those contracts are shaped for the future. I do not, myself, sign up to a nationalist view of water; I don't object...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, it's a very good question indeed that the leader of Plaid Cymru raises, because the 2017 Act was a Conservative Government Act. It wasn't an Act made here, it wasn't an Act that reflected the policy preferences of the Welsh Government; it was an Act that a Conservative Secretary of State took through the House of Commons and put on the statute book. What happened, I believe, is...
Mark Drakeford: Wel, diolch i Cefin Campbell, Llywydd. Diwygio contractau, buddion ariannol, mwy o fuddsoddi ac amrywio’r proffesiwn yw rhai o’r camau sy’n cael eu cymryd i wella mynediad i bobl yn rhanbarth yr Aelod.
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, 20 per cent of dental practices in Wales are private practices; that is simply a fact of life, and it has been a fact of life since the NHS was established. There is nothing new in that at all. I see regularly from dental interests this theme that contracts are being handed back across Wales. I spoke to the Chief Dental Officer for Wales myself last night about this. He tells...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, we're always willing to look at ideas that come forward from practitioners. The fact of the matter is that dentistry, uniquely of primary care professions, is paid for the work before they do it, not after it. At the end of the year, there always has been, under the previous contract as well as the current contract, a reconciliation, when you look to see what a practice has...
