Thank you. I move amendment 3 in the Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Even though this debate is about services that are provided for older people, it is of interest to us all, of course, and for the sort of country that we want to create in Wales. What sort of country would we like to grow old in? Well, that’s the question that we all need to be considering.

The report underlines the value of having an older people’s commissioner, and the casework shows that services are quite often too complex and difficult to access. The quality of care in particular is an issue that is highlighted time after time.

We support the idea of rights-based approaches to public services that the commissioner advocates, and we are happy to see these rights strengthened in whatever way possible. But there is one elephant in the room here, and that is austerity and the cuts in particular to local government. While local government in Wales is being hit less severely in Wales this year, thanks to the Plaid and Labour agreement over the budget, the general settlement, and the situation in general, creates many challenges. Inevitably, the rights of older people to have services such as public transport, libraries and public toilets, and the range of services that are essential to the quality of life of older people, are under threat. Continuous and prolonged financial austerity in the long term goes against the rights of older people, and legislation that is being passed in this place will not be as effective without the fiscal powers that are needed to ensure that public services can be appropriately funded. Unfortunately, it appears that these challenges will continue. How we respond to them will determine whether old age will be a good experience—the sort of experience that all of us here would like to have. Or will we, through austerity and through this situation, create poverty among pensioners—the type of thing that was seen decades ago?

I would like to outline three issues in terms of approach that could assist in this. First of all, the UK Government has to be much more honest with their core voters about the economic need to have a larger workforce paying taxes at a level that is needed to maintain essential public services of quality. Secondly, the Welsh Government has to find ways where public services and departments within the same services work together more effectively. This means a much better understanding about this and about the fact that failing to maintain one service means additional costs for other services, and that an obsession with the baseline creates problems in years to come. Eventually, it is cheaper to provide public services that are good than leaving people to become ill long term, to leave them too reliant on public services or to become continued users of public services.

That leads us to the third point, which also relates to attitude and approach. We have to get rid of this attitude that people who use public services are a burden on taxpayers’ money. They are not. People over 65 years of age make a massive economic and social contribution to Wales. It is worth £259 million in childcare—free childcare—for our grandchildren; and £496 million through volunteering. Those are only two examples. Think how it would be for public services without these and much more. Therefore, the attitude to be adopted is this: if we spend money on keeping people who are healthy, active and living independently, then we will have great benefit from that investment. And, in turn, this will enable more of us to age well. That is the name of the innovative project in Gwynedd, which has that exact intention at its core, which enables the people from the county to age well. I would like to thank the commissioner and her team for their work, and for this report today. Thank you.