Oral Answers to Questions

Kevin Brennan Excerpts

Wednesday 29th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jones]

This is currently a matter for discussion between the Welsh Assembly Government and the relevant Whitehall Department, and those discussions continue.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

8. What plans her Department has to mark St David’s day.

[The Secretary of State for Wales (Mrs Cheryl Gillan)]

Tonight my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister is holding a reception for St David’s day. Tomorrow the Welsh flag will be flying over No. 10, and I will be attending the Back-Bench St David’s day debate and welcoming Welsh children from the Dreams and Wishes charity to the House of Commons and Gwydyr house. Tomorrow I will also be attending a St David’s day dinner in London and a church service in the Crypt, at St Mary Undercroft. I presented the Prime Minister with daffodils from the national botanic garden of Wales yesterday, and Gwydyr house is full of daffodils.

[Mr Speaker]

Almost enough material for an Adjournment debate.

[Kevin Brennan]

This St David’s day will be tinged with some sadness, as Wales plays a memorial match in my constituency tonight in memory of Gary Speed, the Wales manager who died so tragically at the age of 42. Money will be raised for a charity called CALM—the Campaign Against Living Miserably—to help to prevent suicide among young men. Will the Secretary of State hold a collection in support of that charity at her St David’s day event?

[Mrs Gillan]

I hope that the memorial match in the memory of Gary Speed goes extremely well and that a lot of money is raised for the charity. In answer to the hon. Gentleman’s question, I will come back to him and let him know, because I would like to ask the people who work in the Wales Office. We are having a charity called Dreams and Wishes come in on St David’s day tomorrow. That is what we are focusing on, but I will see what I can do for the hon. Gentleman. [Interruption.]