We're looking forward to the extra money from Brussels, which will stand the Welsh Government and the UK Government in good stead in due course, once we leave.

The Plaid statement earlier we had from Adam Price—I think he said just now that ‘we will deliver together’, and I think he was quoted in the media earlier as saying that waiting times in the NHS will be reduced on account of this intervention by Plaid. Can the Cabinet Secretary advise us of the extent to which we call Plaid to account for their role in delivering this reduction in waiting times, or is that something he continues to take sole responsibility for himself and with the formal Welsh Government?

Outside the health area, where I think there are some welcome increases, we note local government is getting a 3.1 per cent increase, of which I think almost all is capital—£123 million—and I think that is welcome. However, I received at the beginning of this year a very welcome letter from Caerphilly County Borough Council telling me, actually, that they weren’t going to increase my council tax after all, because the grant settlement had been more generous than they anticipated. This year, we hear there’s another £25 million thanks to Plaid, and we are also told that, for the first year in four, there is to be an increase in the non-hypothecated grant. Can all this be afforded? I’m sure it’s very, very welcome for Labour and Plaid councillors standing for re-election next May, but given what the Cabinet Secretary says about the overall pressures, is not the risk that there will be very significant cuts following those elections, and given the relative generosity of spending settlements since austerity commenced in 2010 for Wales in the local government area, certainly compared to England? Although I’m not suggesting that we replicate the cuts there in any sense. Certainly, the social services additional funding and the integration with the NHS are welcome. But can the Minister continue to protect local government to the extent that he says in this budget?

The £30 million extra for higher education and further education—we support some of those further education additions. The higher education, we’re told, is for the transition to the new student support arrangements., which we were told were going to be cost neutral, or, the Conservative spokesman says, a saving of £48 million. Can the Minister confirm how cost neutral or otherwise these changes will be, and whether he, given his long history of progressive left-wing politics, considers that these handouts of means-tested grants to families earning between £50,000 and £81,000 is a priority for him, including also the £1,000 for families earning even higher than that? Is it possible we could seek some savings in this area given the other changes and the pressures that the Cabinet Secretary sets out in his budget?

On transport, we welcome the study into the Carmarthen-Aberystwyth route, and possibly reopening that, although for £300,000 we’re not totally sure, given the challenges, how much that’s going to lead to. But we welcome it as far as it goes. It was in our manifesto as well as in Plaid’s. We note that the Cabinet Secretary has set aside in reserves more than £900 million for an M4 relief road. Is that enough given the estimates of cost we now get for that black route? Professor Stuart Cole told me the week before last that he now thought it would be at least £1.2 billion, compared to just £0.5 billion for his blue route or £0.6 billion with the second leg up to the A449.

Finally from me, I’d just like to refer to the Severn bridges and the tolling arrangements. The St David’s Day agreement said they would be a matter for agreement between the UK and the Welsh Governments. There doesn’t seem to be much agreement, though, with this continuing tax that the UK Government is going to put on the tolls after they should be abolished in approximately a year’s time. Will that continue after the purported debt is paid off, or will the Cabinet Secretary look forward with me to something in the budget next year to make a contribution towards maintenance so that tolls on those bridges can be scrapped?