English: Well, I make no excuses for repeating some of the figures used by Bethan Sayed and others, because they deserve repeating time and time again. Approximately 600,000 children live in Wales. Of those, one in three, or 200,000, are in poverty; 90,000 are living in severe poverty. More than half of Welsh children in low-income families are worried their parents are finding it harder to pay for everyday necessities such as food, heating and clothes. Unfortunately, the rhetoric in this Chamber blames cuts to benefits as the main cause of poverty. This is just not the case. Lack of good, well-paid jobs is the greatest factor affecting poverty in Wales, whether it is poverty for children or the sector as a whole. It is the failure of the Welsh Government to provide those jobs that is the reason for the appalling situation and figures for poverty in Wales. It is a lame excuse to blame UK Government benefit cuts, as unwelcome as they are, for the increasing number of food banks and other indicators of poverty in Wales. The only true and sustained route out of poverty is employment - good, well-paid employment. The Welsh Government claims that unemployment levels are at an all-time low but masks the fact that much of that employment is part-time, or worse, through the iniquitous zero-hours contract system of so-called employment. I do believe strenuous efforts are now being made by the Welsh Government to alleviate this problem: better apprenticeship programmes, an education system much more aligned to business needs and a number of interventions designed to get the long-term unemployed back into work. But all this against the backdrop of 20 years of Labour Government in Wales - a Government that promised to eradicate poverty by 2020, and needless to say, there's not much time to achieve that goal. And I will point out that for 13 of those 20 years, there was a Labour Government in the UK Parliament at that time. Twenty years that included the debacle of the Communities First programme, which the Government promised would bring an end to poverty in our most deprived areas, and which actually delivered, apart from some isolated cases, almost nothing: £410 million down the drain. Evidence for this lies in the figures quoted above. One wonders how many real long-term jobs would have been created if we had given £1 million with proper controls to 410 proven entrepreneurs. It is now time for the Welsh Government to deliver on their promises. The people of Wales, and especially those condemned to a life of poverty, deserve better than that delivered in the last 20 years.
Welsh: Wel, ni wnaf unrhyw esgusodion am ailadrodd rhai o'r ffigurau a ddefnyddiwyd gan Bethan Sayed ac eraill, oherwydd maent yn haeddu cael eu hailadrodd dro ar ôl tro. Mae tua 600,000 o blant yn byw yng Nghymru. O'r rheini, mae un o bob tri, neu 200,000, yn byw mewn tlodi; mae 90,000 yn byw mewn tlodi difrifol. Mae mwy na hanner y plant yng Nghymru sy'n byw mewn teuluoedd incwm isel yn poeni bod eu rhieni'n ei chael hi'n anos talu am hanfodion pob dydd megis gwresogi, bwyd a dillad. Yn anffodus, mae'r rhethreg yn y Siambr hon yn beio'r toriadau i fudd-daliadau fel prif achos tlodi. Ond nid yw hynny'n wir. Prinder swyddi a chyflogau da yw'r ffactor mwyaf sy'n effeithio ar dlodi yng Nghymru, pa un a yw'n dlodi plant neu'r sector cyfan. Methiant Llywodraeth Cymru i ddarparu'r swyddi hyn yw'r rheswm am y sefyllfa erchyll a ffigurau tlodi yng Nghymru. Esgus tila yw beio toriadau Llywodraeth y DU i fudd-daliadau, er mor annymunol ydynt, am y nifer gynyddol o fanciau bwyd a dangosyddion eraill o dlodi yng Nghymru. Yr unig lwybr go iawn a pharhaus allan o dlodi yw cyflogaeth - gwaith da am gyflog da. Mae Llywodraeth Cymru yn honni bod lefelau diweithdra yn is nag erioed ond yn celu'r ffaith bod llawer o'r gwaith hwnnw'n rhan-amser, neu'n waeth, drwy'r system anghyfiawn o gontractau dim oriau. Rwy'n credu bod ymdrechion glew yn cael eu gwneud yn awr gan Lywodraeth Cymru i liniaru'r broblem hon: rhaglenni prentisiaeth gwell, system addysg sy'n cyd-fynd yn llawer gwell ag anghenion busnesau a nifer o ymyriadau a gynlluniwyd i sicrhau bod pobl sy'n ddi-waith yn hirdymor yn cael gwaith. Ond mae hyn oll yn erbyn cefndir o 20 mlynedd o Lywodraeth Lafur yng Nghymru - Llywodraeth a addawodd ddileu tlodi erbyn 2020, ac afraid dweud nad oes llawer o amser i gyflawni'r nod hwnnw. A hoffwn dynnu sylw at y ffaith bod Llywodraeth Lafur yn Senedd y DU am 13 o'r 20 mlynedd. Ugain mlynedd a oedd yn cynnwys llanastr y rhaglen Cymunedau yn Gyntaf, yr addawodd y Llywodraeth y byddai'n rhoi diwedd ar dlodi yn ein hardaloedd mwyaf difreintiedig, ac nad yw wedi cyflawni fawr ddim mewn gwirionedd, ar wahân i rai achosion unigol: £410 miliwn i lawr y draen. Mae'r dystiolaeth i'w gweld yn y ffigurau a ddyfynnir uchod. Tybed faint o swyddi hirdymor go iawn a fyddai wedi'u creu pe baem wedi rhoi £1 filiwn, gyda mesurau rheoli priodol, i 410 o entrepreneuriaid profedig. Mae'n bryd bellach i Lywodraeth Cymru gyflawni ei haddewidion. Mae pobl Cymru, yn enwedig y rhai a gondemniwyd i fywyd o dlodi, yn haeddu gwell na'r hyn a gyflawnwyd yn yr 20 mlynedd diwethaf.