Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for your report. I wanted to focus on the provision for Gypsies and Travellers. I know that many Members of the Assembly did attend the Holocaust memorial service last week on the steps of the Senedd, which was organised by the cross-party group on Gypsies and Travellers. I’m sure we were all very moved by the stories we heard about Gypsies and Travellers who had suffered in the Holocaust. I know that many people are unaware of the large numbers of those, the many hundreds of thousands, who died during that period. So, I think that was an opportunity for us to hear something about the Gypsy and Traveller community that is not generally known.

In many ways, the situation of Gypsies and Travellers in Wales has improved. One of the big steps that we took forward was to put a duty on local authorities to provide sites. I have contact with the all-party group in Westminster for Gypsy and Traveller law reform, and they are absolutely thrilled that we have been able to achieve that duty here in Wales, because that is something that was lost, and something that they‘ve struggled to get back on the agenda—of course, totally unsuccessfully, and the provision in England now doesn’t compare with what we’re doing in Wales.

So, that is a great step forward, and local needs assessments have been undertaken. Money has been made available to improve sites, so I do feel that we are moving along in the right direction. However, there are some areas of concern. Mark Isherwood has already mentioned in his contribution the very low education achievement of Gypsy/Traveller children. In fact, it is staggeringly low—I think it’s about 15 per cent compared to 68 per cent of the average school population. So, we’ve got huge strides to make in order to improve that situation. In the Children, Young People and Education Committee, we have been taking evidence about the changes to the education improvement grant, which mean that the Gypsy/Traveller element of it is no longer ring-fenced, and neither is the ethnic minority part. I think there are quite a lot of concerns coming out about whether this money is now being successfully targeted to the different Gypsy and Traveller projects, and so I hope the Minister will keep a careful eye on the results of that inquiry, because it does look as if the provision for Gypsies and Travellers is diminishing.

Then the other point I wanted to make was a particular point about the Unity project in Pembrokeshire. The Unity project in Pembrokeshire has worked very closely with the Traveller education service, based at Monkton Priory Community Primary School. This project has been held up as a beacon—a shining beacon. They’ve worked with the Traveller education service to establish trust with all the Traveller sites in the area, to encourage the children to come to school. The parents in the community have confidence in the school and in the work the Traveller education service are doing. But it has been very disappointing that the lottery-funded project, which funded three workers to work with the Traveller education service to do the outreach work, the trust building, comes to an end on the thirty-first of the month—I think that may be today—and the Pembrokeshire local authority has not taken on the project as it was highly expected that they would do.

So, this means that we have a situation where a project that’s been held up throughout Wales—the work with Gypsies and Travellers—is really at a stage where we fear it may deteriorate. I can’t emphasise too much how successful that project has been. It’s fairly unusual for Gypsy and Traveller children to move on and get degrees, and there are three young women who’ve actually got degrees through going through that service. Many have got employment in the area, and altogether it has been very successful. So, I wanted to draw this to the attention of the Minister. There has been intense lobbying by the young people themselves down there, of the local authority, to try to urge them to change their minds and really support what has been such a successful project, and it’s by the work of those three workers that young people have been able to come here, young Gypsy/Traveller men and women, and make their contribution to the cross-party group. Indeed, they were here last week saying how bitterly upset they are, and they are lobbying the councillors. So, I will end on asking the Minister if it’s possible he could comment on one of our really successful Welsh projects and see whether anything can be done to save that.