Diolch, Dirprwy Llywydd. Can I thank all Members who’ve taken part this afternoon for their contribution, and the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government for setting out the Government’s response to our work in a little more detail this afternoon? I wish to go ahead with a couple of points. As Suzy highlighted, one thing that was mentioned to us was that it was not transformational, and that was told to us several times, but they also, as you rightly pointed out, highlighted the fact that percentage-wise the funding wasn’t perhaps huge enough to create transformational change. But what they also did say was that it might have meant things didn’t happen that could have happened otherwise, in the sense that we may have gone backwards as a consequence rather than standing still, perhaps. So, maybe not transformational, but it has meant that we haven’t lost ground; that was, I think, an important point. But you also highlighted the fact that we rely too much, perhaps, on the EU pot of funding sometimes in our public areas and that we should address this, and this is what we’re talking about: more creative thinking and more sector involvement.

Steffan highlighted the NUTS 2 regions that are in Wales, and I fully agree with him that we need to define regions. One of the questions that was raised was: what does a region mean in Wales? Are we still talking about the two regions that were originally part of the EU funding? How do other parts of Wales fit into all of this? How could it work better? And it is important that the Welsh Government perhaps looks at those specific questions as to what the regions are, and they might not be the same as the local government combinations. They might be different as a consequence. We do need to look at the region for economic development on that side of things and how we can support those policies—the regional policies—and then funding the needs that are local needs, perhaps, and they’ll be different. That worries me a little bit about some of the criteria you place on them, because the criteria will be different in different areas.

And, yes, we definitely need to be Brexit-prepared. But you raised several important questions to the Cabinet Secretary. I think, actually, when you scratch the surface, there’s a lot more to it than that, and I think that showed the complexities that arise and the need to replace regional policy. But we need to replace them quickly. We can’t take our time whilst this process is ongoing. We know the clock is counting; we’ve been told that enough times by everybody—by UK Government, EU negotiators. We need to move forward to a point where we’ve got some position.

Eluned highlighted the fact that regional structures, particularly in the rural areas, are important. We can’t forget that, and it is important that we address those things, but she also highlighted the fact that there seems to be a breakdown, once again, in intergovernmental relationships. I was disappointed, Cabinet Secretary, to hear that the UK Government have not been in discussions with you regarding this shared prosperity fund. Perhaps it reflects the UK Government’s whole approach to Brexit, because every time we ask you about the Joint Ministerial Committee and everything else, we seem to get a response that they’re not really listening. I think it’s about time the UK Government listened to the people, not just in Wales but across the UK, because we are approaching an edge very quickly, and unless we get some answers and things in place, we’re going to fall off with a big bump. So, that does worry me.

On the multi-annual funds, again, it’s been very beneficial, not just for the EU ones; it’s been beneficial for the people running the programmes because they’ve known the timescales they’ve had and the funding they’ve had for that. Perhaps the Cabinet Secretary will—because he didn’t answer this today—look at the multi-annual funds concept in any future regional policy. Cabinet Secretary, I totally agree with you: money, autonomy, creativity are very important for us to actually deliver a regional policy that is fit for Wales, and we need to ensure that that goes forward.

The report and today’s debate show us there’s much to discuss. In the debate, we face a future outside the EU and, in laying this report, we hope to make an initial contribution to this debate. It’s going to be an ongoing debate about our economic future after Brexit, but we must ensure it’s always evidence based as well. We look forward to further contributions, and I remind everyone in this Chamber that this will affect every single one of us—my constituents and the constituents of all of us, whether we’re constituency AMs or regional AMs; everyone will be affected by this process. We need to safeguard the interests of the people of Wales in the years ahead and we need to make sure this is achieved. Thank you.