I very much welcome this statement, because it’s a signal of early intent on the high principles from the committee. I particularly welcome the clear statement that the funding that is currently there and that was very much promised within the referendum by those campaigning to leave should actually be delivered, but not only that, that the policy that surrounds that should actually be made in Wales and decided in Wales, as befits a legislature where all those competences are, indeed, devolved to us now. So, we shouldn’t in any way retrench into a situation where, whatever shape the Brexit finally takes, on the framework of the EU, as it is passed down to a UK level, we suddenly find that we’ve lost competences. It has to be here that agricultural policy, rural development policy, environmental policy, et cetera, et cetera, should actually be decided.

But we do need that funding, and I think the Chairman is right in making that very clear point that the funding is key to this. It must be for the Welsh Government, I have to say, to actually decide how to utilise that funding, or which way to cut, dice and splice it. Because it’s interesting that, within the statement as well, the Chairman rightly says that—he doesn't actually refer to the point that has been made to us previously, but I know he’ll have paid regard to it, where people have said, ‘This isn’t a blank sheet; this is an issue of transition.’ It’s not as if we’re setting up a whole new ball game here. We are working within rules and there are other countries that will have different versions of support for their farming community. It isn’t a blank sheet.

However, there is an opportunity for some more radical thinking, and some of that radical thinking may indeed include thinking around how you use public money to actually deliver wider public goods. Amongst those public goods, by the way, are the production of good, sustainable food and viable rural communities with small and medium-scale farms. But also amongst those public goods are flood alleviation, how we deal with the peat bogs on top of the moors, and biodiversity. How do we maintain the absolutely invaluable ecosystem services that we have and all of that as well? This does give us an opportunity to think differently and think radically, but we must—as the point has been made to us, as well—think about the fact that we are not going from a blank sheet. Whatever happens in England, or in Ireland, funnily enough, let alone in other European countries, we need to keep an eye to that in how we take forward this. But funding is key, and policy freedom in Wales is key as well.

There’s just one final point I wanted to make. We often talk about rural communities within this place—and I was used to this in Westminster as well, thinking about places on the north York moors or the East Anglian farmers, or somewhere in Ceredigion, beautiful as it is—but it’s also an issue that affects the south Wales valleys and many other places. Forty per cent of my constituency is upland hill farming—always has been. It’s essential for Wales, in particular, that we get this right, and I very much welcome the high-level statement by the chairman here. Even though we’re still in discussions—we’re still talking with many people out there—the high-level principle of saying, ‘The funding that was promised must come to Wales’ has got to be delivered on, and then it’s got to be for Wales and the Cabinet Secretary in front of us to actually decide, in concert with Assembly Members here, what the policy should be and how we should actually use that funding to deliver those wider benefits that are out there. That’s the thing I would end up in saying. Whilst this is very much focusing, quite rightly, on farming and food production and so on, it is also looking as those wider imperatives, critical that they are, of biodiversity, ecosystem services and sustainable rural communities. They all go hand in hand. They can all be delivered together. We are stewards of this, going forward, not masters of this, and we need to look after these rural communities.