May I thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for your statement? I also want to endorse the thanks that you’ve given to professor Diamond and his panel, and, indeed, the wider sector and everyone who’s contributed to this lengthy process, but a process I’m sure that will be valuable as we move towards creating a better and improved regime. In my view, this does offer a more sustainable model. You’ve stated that you support the principle underpinning this. I’m not sure if you made it entirely clear that you also agree that this moves us towards a more sustainable model than the model that we currently have. I’m sure you would want to make that clear in your response, if you wouldn’t mind.

Professor Diamond, of course, has made it clear consistently throughout this debate on these recommendations that what is proposed is a comprehensive package and that we shouldn’t pick and choose various elements of it as we implement. In looking at it in its entirety, would you acknowledge that this is a comprehensive package? A comparison was made with Assembly Members by professor Diamond that this isn’t a clothes line where you can actually pick a few items of clothing and leave the rest hanging there—that you have to look at it as one piece of work. So, while you do talk about considering individual recommendations, looking at the whole package should be your priority, and I hope that you’d be willing to do that.

Likewise, there is a question on funding. Do you accept that the current budget allocated for student support should remain and that you would work within that budget as a Government, or are you going to be seeking savings here? Because that clearly will have a great influence on how much of the holistic package that you as a Government will be able to implement. I think it’s important that you make it clear in terms of the basis that you’re working on, in financial terms.

I certainly welcome the support on part-time and postgraduate study, and also on promoting the links and the progression between FE and HE. I would like to ask you, perhaps, to say a little about how you feel these recommendations can assist Government in promoting that equality that we all want to see between vocational and academic education.

There is a need for a regime that is portable too, so that, wherever you study, the support can follow you. Diamond is entirely clear, whether it is in Wales, the UK or, in the current climate, within Europe. Plaid Cymru in our manifesto wanted to go a step further and ensure that there was support for you if you decided to study outwith Europe. I understand that that is also one of Diamond’s aspirations. Perhaps you could actually express support for that in principle, if it is something that you would be eager to support and promote.

There is also another clear recommendation contained in the report, namely recognition of the need to encourage students either to stay in Wales with their skills, or to return to Wales with their skills once they’ve graduated, and to do so, as Professor Diamond says, for the benefit of Wales. The suggestion is that one could look at doing that by actually scrapping some of their debt, or writing off some of their debt. That is certainly in keeping with what Plaid Cymru had put forward as a central element of our own policy. So, clearly we would welcome recognition of that concept proposed by Professor Diamond.

He also said this morning, in discussing these recommendations with Assembly Members, that the Government needs to do that with urgency—those were his words—because the benefits for the economy here in Wales and for wider society is entirely clear to everyone. So, will you confirm that you fully intend to take action on that recommendation, and intend to do so with urgency?

I’m sure that we all look forward to reading the report in detail. Of course, we as a party are more than willing to play our part in order to implement what’s contained within the report, as long as it does move us towards ensuring a regime that is more sustainable, which closes the funding gap also across post-16 education, and does more to attract talent back to Wales in order to create a stronger basis for economic growth in Wales, and social growth also, which I’m sure is something that we all want to see.