 Prwy'n hwn dan, awdur meddwl, a blwyddyn e wedi dda. O'r cwrs, i chi gyddiolch am ymuno a fi heddiw ar gyfer gyngharedd gyntaf i'r wasg Eleni. Thank you for being here today and for joining me in the first press conference of the new year. Dyma'r cyfle i edrych amlaen a dyma'r sy'n mynd i fod yn un braser iawn. What I hope to do today is to look ahead to what will be a very busy term just before Christmas. As you know, I announced my intention to stand down as leader of Welsh Labour and First Minister in March. Tan ar amser hwnnw rwy'n parhau i fod yn brif yn idog a roi'n gynnylbwyntio ar gyflewni'r adhewyon a wneud sy'n gymryd anhyrholiad dweitha. Mae Llawer iawn o waith i wneud rhwng nawr am ismawr ac rwy'r amswnheddiw am rhai o fymlaenoriaethau ar gyfer y trymys nesaf. Until the end of March comes, I will remain as the First Minister here in Wales focused on delivering the promises that my party made to Wales at the last election. There is a huge amount of work to do between now and March, and I want to highlight today just some of the priority things that we will be working on over the next three months. To begin with though, I did just want to say thank you to all of those from the emergency services and many other agencies who have responded to calls about flooding in Wales over Christmas and the new year, as ever, while some of us were not in work and enjoying the festive period, others were out there doing everything that they could to help our fellow citizens in those emergency circumstances. True as well, as ever, of the national health service and the care services who continued in a period where there was huge demand and pressure to provide that help and support. Every year, the busiest period for the health service is the period immediately at the start of the new year. Once again, these have been some of the busiest days and weeks for the NHS right across the United Kingdom. Here in Wales over the Christmas and the new year period, the Welsh ambulance service responded to 23% more 999 calls than in the same period last year, so a huge upswing in demand. Of course, the NHS plans for winter all year round, and in Wales particularly, we have invested in new services to support people so that they don't need to go to A&E or need a 999 emergency ambulance service. We've opened urgent primary care centres across Wales and same day emergency care centres to treat people who don't need to be admitted to hospital. We've introduced the 111 Press 2 service for mental health right across Wales and we've got more people than ever working in the ambulance service. Every one of us can do something to support the NHS and all of those working for it, especially at this time of the year, by choosing the right service for our health care needs. And that absolutely does not mean phoning an ambulance and going to A&E as the first response that you make. If you don't know where to go, then NHS 111 provides urgent health care advice 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and that service remained resilient and available right through the Christmas and the new year period. Mae rwythnos hwn yn nodi ddechrau tŷ mor newydd, lle byddwn ni'n grithio'n galled i basio'r cyllideb fwyaf herio, rydyn ni wedi ddatblygu erioed. This week marks the start of a new term and we will be working hard throughout it to pass the most challenging budgets that we've ever faced in the period of devolution. The finance minister will tomorrow set out how we have redesigned our spending plans to focus funding towards frontline NHS and core local government services as far as possible. But even though services who are receiving additional funding next year will be another difficult one for public services in Wales. A budget, which comes largely from the block grant received via the UK government, has been eroded by the impact of persistently high inflation and it's now worth £1.3 billion less in real terms than when it was set by Chancellor Richie Sunak three years ago. £1.3 billion less than the Chancellor believed Wales needed in order to meet the demands on our public services. It's after more than a decade of austerity, a botched Brexit, a Covid pandemic and a cost of living crisis that we've had to make some very stark and difficult choices as we've developed the draft budget for 24-25. Getting that budget passed by the Senate will be a key piece of work for us between now and March. The coming month will itself be a very busy one. I'll be travelling to Poland on Wednesday to refresh and renew our long standing relationship with Silesia. It's more than 20 years now since Rodri Morgan signed one of the first ever memorandums of understanding for I think more than 600 years between Wales and another part of the world. Rodri signed the MOU with Silesia in 2002 and it's based particularly on our common industrial heritage. We've renewed and refreshed that MOU because there continues to be a great deal that we can achieve together and learn from one another. I'm looking forward to strengthening the ties between Wales and Silesia, especially in relation to how we can deal with post-industrial economies, co-tip safety, which is a real issue for Silesia as it is for us, and tourism possibilities as well. Later this month, the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales co-chaired by Laura McAllister and Rowan Williams, it will publish its final report later this month. We will also publish our own child poverty strategy and set out proposals for a statutory licensing and registration scheme for visitor accommodation in Wales, just one of the commitments in the cooperation agreement we have with Plaid Cymru. This month, the Senate will vote on the general principles of Senate reform and decide whether the bill, based as it is on recommendations made by a Senate committee, whether that bill should move forward to the amending stage. In this month as well, we expect to learn more about Tata's plans for the future of steel making in Wales. This has been a very uncertain time for Tata employees, their families and businesses in the wider supply chain. As a government, we remain committed to a long-term future for steel making in Wales, and this month we will be continuing to do all we can to support that. Inside the government, we will continue to prepare for the Welsh module of the COVID-19 UK inquiry, which will examine the Welsh Government's response to the pandemic and the in-person hearings for that module of the inquiry will be held in Wales from the end of February. So mae'r flwyddyn newydd yn cyfle i ni gyd i edrych ymlaen gwneud cynlluniadau ar gyfer y flwyddyn i ddod ac i feddwl am newydd diadau sydd i ddod. Start of the new year, it's always an opportunity to look forward to make plans for the year ahead and to think about changes to come. The next three months will bring changes, both for me and for the Welsh Government. Until that time comes, I remain absolutely focused on my job as First Minister and helping the Welsh Government to discharge our responsibilities and the huge amount of work that lies ahead for us during this term. Diolch o gael o'n i chi gyd, ac rwy'n gweithio i'r cwestiynau yn y rhan fwy. Rwy'n gweithio gyda'r cymdeithasol yng Nghymru, ac rwy'n gweithio i'n gweithio i Brunwennau LBC. The start, people have had the whole of the autumn simply to get used to the new policy, and as you've heard, the intention of enforcement authorities is to continue to do so on the basis of engagement where people are in breach of speed limits. The first thing the police will do will be to have a conversation with them to make sure people are aware of the law, their obligations and to help people to make sure that they are living up to those obligations. Where people deliberately break the law, where people drive well above 20 miles an hour in a 20 miles an hour zone, then the law will have to be enforced. But we got very used during the Covid period to the four E's as the police say, which enforcement is the final stage. The early stages are about education and making sure that people understand, and that's how this law will be approached in Wales, as we've said, and having had a significant period for people to get to know about it. If nobody could say that the debate in Wales has not been lively about it, then I think we now move into the next phase. I remember saying on the day that the policy was introduced that we would keep it under review. That's absolutely right. There are bound to be anomalies. We know that. If we look across Wales on the same guidance, one local authority has exempted 10% of all its roads, retained them at 30 miles an hour. Another local authority has exempted 0.4% of its roads. So the policy does need to be fine-tuned. We've acknowledged that from the beginning. We need experience to draw on to make that happen. And that review highlighted by both the people who are candidates for the Labour leadership is one to which we've been committed since the outset. My second question, then. Many have now seen the dramatisation, of course, of the post office scandal. What are your thoughts on how the scandal has been handled so far by those in power, given a lot of postmasters in Wales, were some of those affected? Any comment on what you'd like to see happen now? Well, I think it would be a rare member of the Senate who hasn't dealt directly with individuals who have been caught up in the scandal. That's certainly been my experience in my own constituency. I think it's a good thing that the UK government has established a full independent inquiry. It's led by a Welsh judge who we've worked with closely as president of the Welsh tribunals and I think people can have confidence in the work of that. But what we need to see is a UK government prepared to get on with the things that they can get on with. You don't have to wait for the final report of that inquiry to do many of the things that need to be done to make sure that people are waiting for their convictions to be overturned, and that that is accelerated, that where compensation payments can already be made, that that gets on and happens, and that's what I think we would look to. It's an entirely non-devolved matter, but Welsh ministers have taken this up with their UK counterparts where there are Welsh individuals who've been directly affected. We need to see some concerted action on the part of the UK government to deal with the things that they can deal with already, and that's certainly what I will be looking for, because there are people in Wales, as we know, and was highlighted in the drama itself, who've been very directly, have had their lives very directly affected by the scandal. Diolch yn fawr, Gareth. Can we have the answers in English and Welsh if possible? Thank you. Just back to 20 miles an hour. Actually, we spoke to some motorists and one prominent motoring lawyer who say there is some confusion still around signage, some confusion to around the guidance issued to police and to magistrates around it. Do they have a point, and just again a supplementary on this, could you just clarify when you say if someone's going well above 20 miles an hour, the law will be informed? What is well above 20 miles an hour? Well, on your first point, Gareth, the BBC went, as was perfectly fine for them to do, to somebody whose job it is to deal with problems with the law, and lo and behold, they found that they were problems, so I don't think we should take that as an entirely representative view of the way things have happened. As I say, there are anomalies. We recognise that from the beginning. Some of them are to do with signage, as to whether signage is clearer enough. We've worked particularly with local authorities in that border zone between 20 and 30 miles an hour to make sure that there are consistent decisions being made and where they are, that they are properly signaled to people. So, when you're driving, you know what you're meant to be doing, and that work will continue, and we've got more experience as each month goes by. There has been some enforcement already in those 20 mile an hour areas, which were 20 miles an hour before the law changed. So, in the part of Cardiff that I live in, it's been 20 miles an hour for a couple of years now, so there was no need to wait for people to find out about that because it had been there for a considerable period. In South Wales, there had been some enforcement of that already. I think I've seen, I don't have figures in front of me. Gareth, where it was being enforced, it was of people who were driving closer to 30 than 20. So, you know, not a couple of miles over, but well in excess of what people were obliged to do. So, if that's a sort of rule of thumb, I think that's how the police have interpreted that so far. Wel, jy sydd wedi dweud, felly wedi wedi dweud o'r ddychrau, mae'n cwysig i ni cadw o polisi, dan a'n lligad ni i weld ble mae, a pethau ni'n gallu gwneud i helpu, bobl yn gallu bod yn glirach gyda'r, bobl am yr oblegiadau sydd angen nawr dan o polisi newid, ni wedi gweithio'n gyda'r awdurdodau lleol. Jy sydd edrych am ble mae bobl wedi newid y gyfraith, jyst i bod yn glir, am beth ni'n awf i ni bobl i'n neud ar dyfodol. Mae nifer o'r lle anghymru ble oedd i gael miliwyr awdurdod o'r gyfraith cyn a polisi wedi newid i gyfraith gyfan, a mae'r hyn wedi dweud i ddachre yn yr adaloedd yna i defnyddio'r gyfraith a ben mae dynnu ffigurau ddim o flaen ni o beth yw wedi weld yw. Mae'n nhw'n wedi mynd ar ôl bobl, mae'n nhw'n wedi mynd sydd o lam mwynau i gain miliwyr ar awr, a fel ni'n wedi dweud yn barod a polisi'r heddli yw i ddachre gyda esbonio i bobl, siarad da bobl, a nid i defnyddio'r agyfraith dim o'n ble mae nhw'n siwr. Mae bobl yn gobobeid mae nhw'n gwneud, mae nhw'n gwneud e pa mae nhw'n wedi gwneud e penderfyniadau paidiad a chi ddim ffyrdi o gyda'r gyfraith newydd. Sorry for the croaking, I was down with the cold last week. Again English and Welsh if we can't first minister. What are you doing to try and avoid a strike by doctors in Wales later this month? Well, as we have explained in our negotiations with the BMA, the offer that we have made in Wales is at the far end of our ability to afford it, and you know the way that the funding flows to Wales is that the money we get depends on the decisions that are made in England. While the strike goes ahead in England and there is no settlement, there is no flow of money to Wales, which would be a consequence of a settlement in England. So I understand of course why junior doctors are as angry as they are and why, and I know it would be reluctantly for so many of them, they are going to take the action that they are taking. But our ability to respond to them in Wales is so dependent upon what the UK government does and then money coming to us as a consequence. And at the moment we have used every money that we can find to make an offer. It is not sufficient in the eyes of junior doctors. What I really hope will happen is that when the strike in England is over tomorrow, that they will be genuine and rapid negotiations at the English level and that that will translate into money that we will be able to use to make an offer to our junior doctors here in Wales. Until that happens, we are at the outer limit of what we have been able to put on the table. I do think this is different in Wales. I think that sense of social partnership about the way we try and work together will continue to sustain us despite the strike. And I hope we will not see some of the very difficult conversations you've seen in England over the last few days between employers and workers in the health service. So, just to say the way the problem to when we are in Wales is a problem or a cutlet. Of course, we are trying to help the public to understand and understand what is going on. I hope that we will be able to work together to make an offer to the public to help the doctors here in Wales. Ar arian sy'n dod i y Gymru, mae'n dibynnu ar ar arian mae'n nhw'n defnyddio yn loigur, a bedweusio weld i'w ar ôl y strike yn loigur, i'w i bobl roundwbwrdd digyledd yn San Stefan. Os mae'n nhw'n gallu fynd i'r ffordd ymlaen, bydd arian yn mynd i ddod i Gymru ac allw ni defnyddio ar arian fynd hyn i ddod atsetlead gyda'r amedd agon sydd anu anghymru. Heb ar arian, does dim lot bwy, allw ni'n neud ar hyn o bryd. Ar y gobatid a fi yw achos y ffordd i'n neud pethau anghymru yw trwy'r ysbryd o'r patneriaeth cymdeithasol, allw ni'n delio gyda'r y problemau. Mae'r problemau yn mynd i codi, wrthnos nesaf. Wrth cwrs, gyda'r bobl fynd yn y gweithlu, allw ni'n delio gyda'r y problemau na trwy ysbryd gweithio digyledd, nid ar y ffordd anod ni wedi weld â'n loigur dros wrthnos dweitha. Diolch yn fawr. Mae'n godych le. Yn y rhwng. Mae'r rhwng. Rwy'n gyfnodd yw'r bobl yn ychwanes ar y cymryd ddiolch yn ddod, ond mae'r bobl yn ddechrau. Mae'n gweithio ym Llyfridol yn Caerdydd i'n ddim i gweithlu o'r ffordd ar y cymryd. Yn ddiwn ni'n ddigonwg, mae'n ddysgu'r cymryd yn gweithwyr. Mae'r bobl yn ddysgu'r cymryd, yn y gweithwyr. that is fair they get find not through their own deliberate actions but because the messaging hasn't been clear? I don't think they will be find in those circumstances Clare, I think if police find somebody driving above 20 miles an hour and the reason is because they are genuinely confused about that, then that's why the police will always start with education and conversation. And I don't think in those circumstances of genuine confusion, the police will move to enforcement. So, if there are examples, genuine examples are where people just have misunderstood that this piece of road that they are on is now a 20 mile an hour limit, then I think that will be resolved through the way that the police intend to respond. But it would need to be genuine confusion, wouldn't it, rather than just a claim to be confused? Felly mae ydych chi'n ei fregwlad o'r llyfrheidio y gynelf wedi amddangos i hynny'r hunain? gan'n eto'r rhyw hwn, mae'n dwydych chi'n gweithio y cyfaint o'r cyfanyddion gydag gweithio hyd yn y enw? Mae'n gweithio y cyfanyddio o'r gwaith yma, rôl eu tîm dimwn o fe iti ar y hwnnw yn i. Nid dyfodd Fygoedd o'r cyfanyddio'r cyfanyddio fel y cyfanyddio yma unrhyw o'r cyfanyddio ar gyfer eich cyfanyddio ar gyfer i'n rhoi. Y policy will save lives of people and will prevent large numbers of serious accidents that can simply be avoided by us all doing something which I don't think is a huge ask of us, which is to just drive more slowly in built up residential areas. Life has become more challenging for pedestrians since the 30-mile-an-hour limits were introduced and let's not forget they were controversial in their day as well. Compared to back then, there are many more distractions for you as a driver. Back then you probably had three dials in front of you. Think what a dashboard of a modern car looks like. And vehicles are bigger and heavier and if you're hit by a bigger and heavier vehicle compared to what cars were like 60 years ago, then the impact on you in a pedestrian will be more serious as well. So we are responding to those wider changes in the way in which motor vehicles operate. We are asking people to do a relatively simple thing knowing that by making that small contribution themselves they can make a very big difference in the lives of other people. You will always ask yourself, you know, could we have taken more time? Could we have explained it more to people? Actually I think the history of changes in motoring, whether it was the original speed limits, whether it was seat belts, whether it was breathalysers, they're all controversial at the time. And they're all things now that we wouldn't go back on and revert to how we used to do things. And I think this will be true when we've done the fine tuning, when we've learnt from these early months, things will settle down and in 10 years time people will be asking themselves why it turned out to be the controversial issue that it has. Thank you. Thanks Claire, thank you very much. I'm going to go to Dan Bevan first of all from ITV on the screen. Thank you First Minister, good afternoon. Sticking with 20 mile an hour, and actually on that exact point, I mean polling from ITV has found that last month that the policy was even more unpopular than it was when the law changed. Given that we've had a little bit of time since then, do you feel like the public are starting to, if not warm to the idea, get a little bit more used to it? And if not, then how do you think you can sort of bring the public along with you on this? Well, my own experience of driving around, I've been driving in different parts of Wales over the holiday period is that people actually are driving more slowly in those areas. And that's what the wider research shows as well is that there is an awareness, people are as you would expect in Wales. People do observe the law. They may not have learnt to love it, as you say, but they are abiding by it. And the more people do that, the more it becomes part of the way you normally do things. I think the controversy that has surrounded its early stages will lessen as that experience beds in. And just to pick up on a point that Bronwyn made earlier regarding the postmaster scandal. Of course, much of the country has been shocked by watching the recent ITV drama. But who do you think needs to be held accountable for this? Is this something that ultimately is only going to be resolved by people needing to form the sword, if you will? Well, I think there are some important questions which the inquiry will want to consider about culpability. This was a post office policy. The question will be whether, as the evidence accumulated of things going wrong, whether those who had that responsibility were quick enough to spot the fact that as this appeared in more and more places, that it was a problem with the system rather than the problem with the individuals. And there is a genuine question to be explored there as to whether or not there was knowledge accumulating in the system where people ought to have acted on that knowledge and for whatever reason chose not to do so. I think in those circumstances there is accountability. But we don't know that for sure and that is why an independent look at the evidence is important. Dan, thank you very much. Let's go to Ruth Mazalski of Wales Online. Maybe not. I've already seen David Nicholson, so I'll go to David because I know he is there and we'll see if Clare is able to rejoin us. David. Hi, First Minister. You alluded to the tough decisions that are going to be made across the public services in Wales with the budget cuts to come. Wales TUC have said that as part of social partnership they are obviously going to be involved in those discussions. But they feel money can be saved in a medium to long term by bringing services back in-house. For example, in social care, we know in the care sector that a lot of money leaks out of the system, goes abroad to investment companies who put those profits into offshore tax havens and that money leaves the public sector for good and bringing those services back in-house along with others would keep that profit within the public sector. Is that something in your next remount you're going to push hard on? Well, I am myself entirely signed up to that basic principle that where you can provide services directly and that means that all the money that the public is providing is invested in the service rather than private profit taking that that's a good place to start. We are, though, 30 and 40 years on from the onset of neoliberalism where many of the things that the state used to provide are now provided in different ways and unwinding all of that is often challenging. But I'll give you one direct example of where we will be doing exactly what the TUC has suggested and we'll be doing it in these three months because during these three months we will move to eliminate private profit taking in services for looked after children in Wales. I think twice last year the competition and markets authority reported on profit taking in those services and found that it was excessive. Now, I want the money that the public in Wales invests in the lives of looked after children. I want all that money to go into providing the service rather than a percentage of that money being taken out of service and into private profit taking because that service is not a huge service. We're able to tackle it in that way during this centre of term. Applying the same principle in bigger services will take more time and will have to be approached in a more step-by-step way than we're able to manage with looked after children given it's relatively constrained size. But that's an example of the principle that you mentioned, David, in action. Thank you. The second question is on Gaza and the continued slaughter there and not just civilians. I mean 100 or so journalists have lost their lives now in the Middle East and your counterpart in Scotland has called for an immediate ceasefire. Are you now convinced that that is the right way forward? Well, events in the Middle East have been profoundly shocking and distressing because that is the original attack on Israeli citizens and the way that that attack was carried out or the profoundly distressing scenes that we see in Gaza. Of course, I would like to see a ceasefire. I'd like to see a ceasefire as quickly as possible and for as long as possible but as we have all seen simply calling for one doesn't make one happen. Many, many people have called for one including voices at the United Nations and yet the conflict goes on. So my own view has been that the way in which the international community can achieve what we all want to see achieved will have to be via a process rather than by passing a resolution because passing a resolution however much it expresses the strength of feeling doesn't by itself achieve the outcome. There will have to be a process by which that ceasefire is brought about, a process by which that ceasefire is sustained, a process which leads to a future for people in Gaza and in Israel that brings about a lasting peace and that is inevitably a more complicated and more challenging process than simply expressing a view or a wish. My view and my wish is for the fighting to end and for that process to begin. Making it happen is a lot harder than saying it. Shall we see? Oh Claire, Ruth is here. Fingers crossed. You are, we can see and hear you. Excellent, thank you. Sorry about that. So can you tell us that as of today every camera is now on, every sign is up and every police force is indeed ready to enforce 20mph zone because as it stands it only finds it to be given out in South Wales in the police force area and you just said there that it's because that's one of the areas where people have been used to 20mph already. So if those points I made at the beginning aren't ready, why is a nationwide law only being enforced in one area of Wales? I think I understood the question. So the law has been enforced already in those places where they were 20mph and our zones have predated the change in the law. As we said in the beginning, we allowed a period of time for people just to get used to the change in the law and given the amount of attention that has been paid to it, it would be difficult I think for anybody to say by the end of last year that they'd never heard of it. Now we are moving into the next phase. And the next phase is not a hard enforcement phase. It continues to start with people being informed, educated and made aware of the change. Where there are blatant and deliberate breaches of the law, just as they would be by people speeding over 30mph or over 70mph on a motorway, then the law, we would all expect the law to be enforced and that is what will be happening in Wales. Sorry if the question wasn't clear. So is it the case that every camera is now on, every sign is up and every police force is now in a position to enforce this law? Well, I'll start with those in the reverse order. Police forces are ready and have a plan. South Wales begins immediately and North Wales will follow. So that plan is all in place. I have nothing in front of me to suggest that the physical infrastructure that is necessary to enforce the law isn't in place. Thank you. My second question is the report last week about South Wales Fire and Rescue Service was horrifying. The detail in it should and rightly shocked many people. We can't get an answer from the fire service whether the outgoing chief fire officer, because he's announced he will retire rather than quit, will get a full pension. Is it right that he is able to go with a full pension if that's correct? Well, I agree with what you say about the nature of the report. It was a shocking report in what it revealed about the culture inside the fire and rescue service. I'm sorry, I know this will not be a satisfactory answer, but the service is not the responsibility of the Welsh Government. We are not privy to the arrangements that are made between individuals and the employer. It is for those who make those arrangements to explain them rather than me, given that the Welsh Government has had no hand in them at all. I think that's it. Diolch yn fawr. Can't post office. Can't ask the last question. Yes. Just one lighter. Of course. Dwi'n gwybod o'r oedd gwasanaeth nifer fawr o bobl ledled Cymru wedi weld o'r aglen ar ataledu. Mae bobl angymru wedi bod rhan o'r problemau sy'n wedi codi dwi'n gwybod yn y gwaith dwi'n ei wneud yn cynrychioli i gollewin cardiff nifer o bobl, sy'n wedi bod rhan o'r problemau. Peth pwysig nawr yw i cael ar ymchwil anibannol i'n mynd ymlaen a dod at y casgliadau, ond mae lot o pethau, mae'r llawodraeth y Dynas yn edrygiad yn gallu wneud nawr. I'n gyflwymi a process. I'n helpu bobl sy'n rhan o'r problemau. I'n taliaria'n i bobl. Mae ble mae hwnna wedi cael a'i cytuno. Peth pwysig i fi nawr i'w gyflwymi o'r pobeth mae'r llawodraeth y Dynas yn edrygiad yn gallu wneud ac i aros am ar ymchwil anibannol i weld beth o tiol o problemau sy'n wedi codi. Thank you very much indeed. Diolch yn fawr.