I would like to welcome the Secretary of State, as well as tell him that, although he’s always welcome in this Assembly, this debate today looks extremely pointless, I have to say, not only because the purpose behind the debate is done away with in the Wales Bill, but also, as has been mentioned by many speakers this afternoon, because the political landscape has changed so drastically since the Queen’s Speech that it’s not possible to take this debate seriously in terms of the purpose of the UK Government, as set out in the Queen’s Speech, in terms of a strategy for the next year. We all accept that there will be a change of Prime Minister and a great deal of political change, and that many of the things, even the minor things, in the Queen’s Speech won’t have much chance of being delivered over the next year or two, as the Government as a whole will be concentrating on Brexit and the need to make provisions for that. And that was the purpose of the Plaid Cymru amendments today. I would just like to expand on those amendments, which particularly look at EU law and the continuation of EU law.

In responding to the Queen’s Speech over two months ago, our Members of Parliament in Westminster proposed that the Queen’s Speech should have included a purpose-drafted Brexit Bill. So, our Members of Parliament did want to see a Bill that would set out, if Brexit were to occur, what would happen to the structural funds and what would happen to the funding available through the single farm payments and the common agricultural policy—so, we were prepared for that—and we also said that there should be some legislative provision for a strategy to underpin structural funds and the purpose of developing a new agricultural policy. We all know that agricultural policy is not a common policy across the UK—the policy is different in Wales, England, Northern Ireland and Scotland. So, we did want to see such a Bill in the original Queen’s Speech. That didn’t appear, but, during the referendum campaign, there were a number of pledges made by those campaigning for Brexit that the funding would remain in place and that it would still be possible to fund structural funds and the common agricultural policy. So, we do now hope that the Westminster Government will respond to that challenge by setting out how that will work.

The second element of this, of course, is the fact that, over 40 years, we have incorporated EU law with our law. Many people have interpreted that as Europe telling us what to do. Well, I see it as legislating jointly with Europe. It’s not possible to outline all the details in a speech this afternoon, but among those things that are now part of both UK law and Welsh law are a number of provisions in terms of working hours. The Secretary of State mentioned that we are to receive powers over landfill tax, but, of course, landfill tax comes from an EU landfill directive. There are a number of renewable energy developments in Wales that are also subject to European directives, and the Welsh language has a co-official status in the European Union that it doesn’t have in Westminster. And that is something that we should bear in mind. We have a bovine TB policy that has been developed jointly with the European Union, and there is a real danger, not only that funding will be lost but also that Europe will start to look anew at those areas of Wales where bovine TB is prevalent and will start to question whether Wales has clean status. Because, in the European context, we are a country that suffers a great deal as a result of bovine TB at certain times and in certain areas.

So, these things have been part and parcel of the way that we’ve legislated in Wales over the past 40 years, either under Westminster or the Assembly. So, I do think that the Westminster Government is duty-bound to explain how we will now make provision in these areas, and, of course, the simple thing to state clearly is that European law should remain in place until it has been specifically revoked, either by this Assembly or, in terms of relevant legislation, by Westminster.

To conclude, and related to this question, I want to return to the fact that we need a clear, robust message, and the Secretary of State made some reference to it, but we do need a clear statement that European Union citizens are welcome in Wales, that they make a great contribution to our health service and our economy, and that they should be allowed to stay without any barrier and, in terms of individuals and families, for there to be no requirement for them to return to other nations.