I thank the Chair for giving a fair summary of the committee’s proceedings to date. From the Plaid Cymru point of view, it is important that we do seize the opportunities now, in terms of the decision to leave the European Union, in order to ensure that we have the best possible terms for agriculture and rural areas, but also to ensure that opportunities are taken to tailor agricultural policy and rural support to Welsh needs. In that context, the Chair referred to the fact that the committee has already looked, for example, at less favoured areas—the uplands, particularly, in Wales—and it does lead us to the fact that it won’t be possible to develop policies, and certainly we won’t be able to ensure that funding is available for those areas unless we have a specifically Welsh framework. It’s very important that’s in place.

Of course, there is room for collaboration with the other nations of the UK—we need that in terms of animal health, animal welfare and such issues. But, does the Chair agree, therefore, that the only way that we can meet the needs of the committee is to ensure that there is freedom of opinion and freedom to make decisions in terms of agricultural policy in Wales, and that we are in a position to agree with other nations on the issues that we have in common, but that we also retain the freedom to make different decisions where that is to the benefit of rural communities?

The second question that arises as a result of this statement is: how will the committee look at other issues? The focus of the Chair’s statement—and indeed it’s true to say the focus of the committee’s proceedings—has been on funding. It’s true to say that a political pledge was made and therefore it’s appropriate that we try to hold people to account in terms of those pledges, but there is another process happening here. Trade is important, exports are important—90 per cent, as the Chair will know, of our agricultural produce is exported to the European Union at present—and the opportunity to take ownership of the good reputation of Welsh agriculture is very important, I think, and there’s an opportunity at one level there. So, does the Chair believe that we could look at how environmental legislative continuity and legislative continuity in terms of trade, and their interrelationship, could also be considered by the committee? Although that is another huge area, it’s extremely important that we don’t only look at funding, but that we also look at the broader context where our farmers trade with the rest of Europe and the rest of the world.