The evolution of the electron and atomic and molecular metastable densities and the radiation of the decaying plasma of helium with a 10^–5-fraction of neon additive is experimentally studied. A model of elementary processes in He–Ne plasma is constructed, which describes the formation and destruction of HeNe⁺ and Ne₂ ⁺ molecular ions and their contribution to the formation of the afterglow spectrum by the electronion recombination. The various criteria influence of neon on the parameters of the decaying plasma are studied. The possibility of determining the amount of neon in helium by measuring the relative intensities of helium molecular bands and neon spectral lines in the afterglow is considered.