Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Strengthening the Welsh constitution has been the main aim and pleasure in my life, and the opportunity, be that unexpected, to continue with that work by presiding over the fifth Assembly is one that I believe to be crucial, because this is the Assembly that will move this Senedd from being a relatively inferior Senedd within the UK to being an equal partner. This will be the Senedd where the responsibility for all our parliamentary proceedings will be devolved to us, and, hopefully, that will happen very soon, given all the sluggishness that there’s been in agreeing the Wales Bill. I won’t actually go in to who’s to blame on one side or the other in a speech such as this one.

In addition to that, we will have responsibility for our own electoral arrangements, and it appears to me, having been in a number of polling booths, as a constituency candidate, that there is a case for us to look anew—for the first time from our point of view as a body—at the voting system and to see whether there is a more proportional system and a more democratic system that we could put in place.

The other challenge, of course, is to ensure that this Senedd is a Senedd that works efficiently. I have to say that, having spent time in the chair, as an individual Member and as a committee Chair, we haven’t yet developed the correct and mature balance between scrutinising Government and getting our business through. Those two aspects of the role of a parliament are just as important if we are to be an effective parliament.

This, too, will be a period where we are likely to have responsibility in appointing a new chief executive for this institution, and this is an opportunity for us to not only thank the incumbent chief executive but also to thank her for the inspiration that has been given to the high-quality staff that we have in this place. Many of you who are former Members, as I have been, of another place, have told me how happy you are to see the professional quality of the work carried out here. I am fully committed to ensuring that those working for us are given appropriate recognition. Thank you very much.