It’s a pleasure to take part in this debate this afternoon. Plaid Cymru will be supporting the Conservatives’ motion today because, in principle, we are supportive of the notion of extending eligibility for free bus and rail travel to every person between 16 and 24 years of age in Wales. If you ask young people whether they want to pay to go on a bus or to go for free, well, going for free wins every time. But the budget has to be available in order to achieve this. Therefore, we would urge the Government to look at the Conservatives’ proposals on this, and not to disregard or criticise any policy proposals from opposition parties without even considering them first. Doing otherwise would certainly be immature on the part of the Government and excessively parochial without reason. In looking at the Government’s amendments, in addition to the Government’s consultation document, it looks as though the Government will be introducing something similar over the next few years anyway, so the response of the Government to this Conservative announcement was completely unnecessary.

But we have to remember why we are considering extending these benefits to more young people. Obviously, ensuring that more young people use public transport would bring a number of economic, social and environmental benefits, as we’ve already heard in this debate. But, in substantial areas of Wales where driving is more convenient, public transport is also scarce. We need to enhance the provision of bus services and, ultimately, we need to bring it back to being a public service.

But, in situations and locations where public transport provision is available, it is vital that we discover innovative means of changing behaviour in favour of using public transport. We need buses and trains that are reliable, that reach their destination on time every time, which are clean, which are integrated with other services, and that are linked up together, and that that happens regularly, so we don’t need to spend a large part of every day travelling.

The proposals that we’re debating today are worth considering as one obvious means of reaching this goal of changing behaviour in favour of using public transport, and making it easier for young people to get a job in the first place and to keep that job when they’ve got it. So, I look forward to receiving more information about these possibilities from the Government once the consultation period is completed. Thank you very much.