Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, for calling me to open this individual Member’s debate, calling for a full public inquiry into the contaminated blood tragedy of the 1970s and 1980s, and thank you to the cross-party Members who have jointly submitted this motion with me: Dai Lloyd, Mark Isherwood, Hefin David, Jenny Rathbone and Rhun ap Iorwerth, who will conclude the debate, and I know that there are other speakers as well.

Seventy Welsh people have died in what has been called the biggest national tragedy ever in the NHS—273 people were infected by contaminated blood in Wales. Many of them are still suffering and the pain still continues for them and their families. In the 1970s and 80s, 4,670 people in the UK suffering from haemophilia contracted hepatitis C, and between 1983 and the early 1990s, 1,200 were infected with HIV. The names of 49 of the 70 who died are appearing on the screens in the Chamber now, and will appear again in the concluding speech. We want this to be an opportunity for Assembly Members to hear the stories of some of those people, and I hope that the National Assembly for Wales will send a clear message to the Government in Westminster that we need a public inquiry to look into this contaminated blood scandal.