25/11/2012 Sunday Politics Wales

Concerns over the increase in the number of women in the dole queue.

Cause to consider increasing the number of assembly members in the

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2241 seconds

Hello, and on the Sunday Politics Wales: Everyone is worried about

the number of people losing their jobs, but should we be more

concerned about the increase in women finding themselves out of

work? And the Silk Commission has

reported on taxation powers for the National Assembly, but are there

enough AMs to deal with those powers if they come to pass?

Joining me throughout today's programme are the Conservative AM

David Melding and the Plaid Cymru MEP Jill Evans. Good morning to you

both. We're going to be talking specifically about unemployment

among women in a moment, but we'll be begin with looking at the job

losses in North and South Wales: 600 hundred at the steel maker Tata

and 200 at the Paramount pizza maker. Nobody welcomes it job

losses. Let us look at the 600 - confers to Reading, quite

disturbing. -- on first reading. has been a rough week for the Welsh

economy. The viability is not being questioned, investment will be

maintained. In fact, it will remain one of the world's leading

steelworks and will get more competitive in time. Carol Wyn

Jones came back from a trade mission in India in April,

announcing Investment end Tata, saying that would make the industry

in Wales competitive. But that does not chime with the figures. It is a

huge blow. The loss of hundreds of jobs has a great knock-on effect,

and my thoughts are with the families, and the support the

Government can provide to those people. He what we see in the

economy is that as more of these job losses are happening, we need

to cut other Wales -- ways of avoiding these job losses before

they happen. We need to provide that support that is needed, but

this is very bad news. Wales' equality watchdog says the

growing number of unemployed women in Wales is extremely worrying and

could begin to erode 50 years of progress in equality for women.

Despite a fall in this month's overall unemployment figure for

Wales, the number of out-of-work women is on the rise. And the

figure for women over 50 has Opening doors for the jobless -

that is the aim of this company. Kim it says the support she gets

this invaluable. She is in her fifties, and despite the help she

gets, she says the search has not been easy. It has been quite

difficult, and it is something that is getting more difficult. I am

looking for part-time work. A lot of women my age are looking for

full-time work. Sometimes, that goes against me. It has not been as

successful as I thought it would be. The latest figures showed a fall in

unemployment in Wales. But when you take a closer look at the figures,

you see a big difference between men that and women. Male

unemployment is down by 26,000, but the number of unemployed women has

gone up by 12,000. You it is extremely worrying. A lot of women

are already working part-time, low- paid work. If we go back to the

statistics, it seems the picture varies according to age. A high

level of youth joblessness has been at the centre of political debate,

and young women are the most likely to be out of work. But while

there's been a reduction in the number without jobs and this age

group, the over-fifties without jobs has doubled. That is

concerning - that so many women are losing out on full-time employment,

maybe because of caring responsibilities, and moving to

being unemployed or part-time at roles. We would encourage more

flexible working. Labour market watchers fear the number of women

without jobs could rise. We are likely to see more people from the

public sector losing their jobs, and because a greater number of

them tend to be women, I would expect that proportion to increase

even further. That is something to look out for in the next 12 months,

to try and get a grip on trying to help those people back into

employment. There is concern that could have serious implications for

equality. What would be very worrying is that if that hard want

equality begins to be pushed back, if women are the ones be losing

their jobs, if you have got it part-time, low-paid role, those

jobs are more vulnerable to being cut when jobs go. It is very

worrying if the gains that have been achieved over the past 50

years are eroding. Back in the centre, Kim is hoping to buck the

trend. I am trying to be as positive as possible. I believe

there is something there. latest unemployment figures were

given a cautious welcome, but getting women into work will be

crucial if the overall figures are More women over 50 are unemployed.

Those figures are shocking! I am surprised at the size of the

difference. We know that in a time of economic crisis, women suffer

worst. A lot of women also low-paid, it ought in part-time work, and a

lot of work for the public sector or local authorities. When cuts are

made, they lose their jobs first often. There is a need for us to be

supporting and protecting those kinds of projects we have in Wales.

They have supported hundreds of companies. They will be him

Brussels next week. They are things being done, but the size of these

figures show we need more urgent action. David, there was a strong

statement from the quality in human rights commission. These statistics

could corrode 50 years of Equality. That is overstated, but in this

recession, the number of women facing unemployment is worrying,,

and there has been a fall in the number of unemployed men. It is a

real issue. But the big factor here is an over-dependence on the public

sector. We need to rebalance the economy. It is not only in Wales,

it is in the South East of England that too many jobs are crowded. Job

creation is what we have to focus on. Job defence is a tough battle,

especially when the economy is not performing well. But that is a

long-term outlook. In the short term, if more public sector cuts

are made, more women will lose their jobs. In the short term, what

can be done? We want to ensure that these people in the over 50 s

bracket do not lose touch with the labour market. In the meantime, we

need to attract new jobs in. Once we leave these economically

depressed times, we will see the economy generating jobs more

quickly. That is the experience of past economic downturns. Looking

ahead, we had a warning that things could get worse. I knew satisfied

that after they do get worse, they will get better? -- are you

satisfied. I do not agree with making cuts or the time. They have

been made more recently, perhaps. This is the very time when are we

need investment. We have so much talent in Wales. The project I

mentioned earlier is supported by European funding. We can work with

businesses, we have worked on schemes in the past. The Government

is going to set up 10,000 apprenticeship schemes. There are

many steps that could be taken. Apprenticeships were not helped

women over 50, though. We need a It's been a big week in Welsh

politics, with the Silk Commission saying the National Assembly could

have the power to vary income tax by the year 2020. That was one of

the conclusions from the first part of the report from the cross-party

group which was set up by the UK Government to consider how Wales

should be funded. The commission, headed by Paul silk, is now turning

its attention to constitutional issues, and they are already facing

a call to look at increasing the They are still a few hurdles to be

overcome before Welsh ministers could have new powers and

responsibilities for raising a quarter of their budget. Paul Silk

believes that those powers could happen by 2020. But that referendum

has to be triggered by a two thirds majority vote in the Assembly.

Similar to the arrangements for last year's referendum on further

law-making powers. The Silk Commission is turning its focus on

constitutional issues. However, they are facing calls to look at

whether there should be an increase in the current number of 60.

way Wales has been governed has changed massively. Most people want

to know that Welsh ministers are held to account for important

decisions. For that to happen, we need a stronger National Assembly.

It reports suggested 80 members. Although the Silk Commission will

not look at the number of AMs, the call for more has been greeted as

inevitable. A bid is implicit, isn't it? It will be interesting to

see what happens with part two - or we seek the devolution? We were

told, during the referendum campaign, that the new system would

cost people less. Here we are, having to pay for legal consultants,

a new Welsh Treasury and another 20 or so Ms. It is very predictable.

There is a feeling that increasing the number of Assembly Members

would not be unwelcome. Most politicians here think they do need

additional members, and there is actually a secret corridor in the

Chamber, which would allow them to remove a partition to seat 20 extra

members. That was designed into the Chamber. The difficulty is, telling

people you meet politicians were not go down well. It is

particularly difficult now because trying to reduce MPs from Wales has

bogged down. It might be possible to persuade the voters we can

offset that with an extra 10 Assembly Members. A most people

want to see value for money, and what -- most people want to know

that Welsh ministers are being held to account. Any change must be cost

neutral. I would want the Welsh Government to look at the number of

local councillors we have across Wales, because this is about

holding Welsh ministers to account. The Silk Commission will be calling

for more evidence on Thursday. Whether it is 60, 80 or more

Assembly Members, there will be a debate.

You are the Deputy Presiding Officer. I will let you decide how

you manage with 60 of them! Were would be seen more of them?

Assembly works with 60 members. If we had 80, we could do more work.

If we want to do that sort of work, and make the Welsh economy

attractive to taxpayers, if we can set up that, I do not think people

would be that worried about having more Assembly Members. Silk is not

suggesting the there should be more, but there was one recommendation,

suggesting that more capacity could be built in to help scrutinised the

Government's work, which means that the capacity is not there, the

framework is not in place for the opposition and Labour to scrutinise

the work of the Government. If you have a restricted membership, you

really have to select your targets. We have had no taxpayers -- tax

powers so far. Do you think more Assembly Members will be needed, if

these recommendations get past? is about the workload. It will

depend on whether the capacity is there. Assembly Members can run

riot, sometimes! They are struggling to do the work they have

to do now. If you compare with other law-making bodies across

Europe, we have very few Assembly Members doing that work. We have

been talking, up until now, about job losses. This is not the climate

in which we want to be creating new elected politicians. I do not

disagree in principle - the time will come when that will happen.

But it is not top of the political It might not be the most popular

suggestion for politicians - one Labour MP said there should be more

Assembly Members. I can understand that. Taken at a long-term view,

the work of the Assembly improves, then that argument can be made.

own view is that we should have tax-raising responsibilities. That

can bring great benefits to the Welsh economy. But I think you have

to make the argument. You cannot say, we have been here for 13 years

and it has not worked. We may not have been able to do as much in

terms of volume of work, but it has met the scrutiny functions of

legislation. We are working through how we deal with crime review law-

making powers, and so far, we do have enough capacity. But we may

see, in the future, we can deal with fewer bills. People have to

decide what type of Assembly they want.

Time now for a quick look back at some of the political stories of

Alan Ken has called on the BBC to publish all invoices that amount to

more than �500. The education minister said he

would not brought anything out as he ordered an urgent inquiry into

education services. With Tata steel cutting 600 jobs,

Nick Smith said many families would be facing a difficult time in the

run-up to Christmas. The Supreme Court upheld the

legality of the first bill passed. The UK Government had claimed that

part of the bill exceeded devolved powers, but their argument was

dismissed. It will now get Royal One thing we did not mention there

was the EU summit over the budget. No white smoke there! You have been

doing work on the financial benefits that the Welsh people get

from the EU. We have been hearing so much from the London government

about cutting the budget. And about the UK interest. But all we get a

lot of EU funding, so I looked at the figures, I looked at what we

were getting in at EU support in Wales in terms of all kinds of

projects and compared that to what we pay in, per-person. And it was

about �40 the year each of us is better off. So Wales benefits

financially from being in the EU. And so what I had to do in Brussels

was argue in a Wales's case, because what successive London

governments have done is try to cut the budget and the funding that

comes to the EU, particularly regional funding. And that is so

the kind of funding we need to. We do not want to be dependent on the

EU, but we need that money now because of the poverty that exists.

Come back on the point that it is a Conservative representation. Do you

support a call? I do. By doing that, or we will create a stronger

European and British economy. wanted to raise the debate in the

Assembly? Yes. We want to reduce the stigma of mental health illness,

and a number of us who have suffered from mental health would

be joining that debate, it just so people are not afraid to talk of

these issues. Don't forget the Wales Report with