It’s a pleasure to participate in this vital debate today, and, as a gog or a northern person from the west, I will use my contribution to discuss north-west Wales specifically. One of my favourite practices as the Arfon Assembly Member is to chat to as many people as possible across the electoral area of my constituency. One of the things that is raised with me time after time, as with Llyr and Rhun, is this feeling that the Westminster Government, and increasingly the Welsh Government, is leaving our communities behind. But it’s more than a feeling; unfortunately, it’s also a reality. Llyr Gruffydd has alluded to the fact that residents in north Wales have received over £350 less per capita compared to the residents of the south-east of Wales since 2013. With the possibility of using all the borrowing powers of Government on funding the black route of the M4 soon, then it’s likely that the residents of north Wales will still be waiting for fair play, and that for many years to come, unless there’s a significant change of direction.

Forcing the Government to invest significantly in our corner of Wales very often feels like trying to get blood from a stone. As the plans for the bypass in Bontnewydd demonstrate, significant investments of this type only come because of the tireless campaigning by Plaid Cymru over a number of years.

We do need to invest in the north Wales infrastructure, but also to invest in jobs. And here, there is an opportunity for the Government to show its commitment to the distribution of wealth by ensuring that jobs in the public sector and national institutions are distributed throughout Wales. But even having published the location strategy, with the aim of creating and sustaining jobs outwith the M4 corridor, they’ve failed to actually meet that goal, particularly in the north-west.

In 2010, 127 jobs were located in Caernarfon town. By now, there are only 82 jobs in Caernarfon, and there is more uncertainty on the horizon for workers in the Welsh Government offices in the town. The Government is going to sell the current site in order to lease part of a smaller building in another part of town—lease, not acquire or purchase a new building, with the right to end that lease after five years. To me, this raises big questions about the security of those jobs in the long term.

I was very pleased when Welsh Government agreed to the Plaid Cymru demands to include £2 million in funding in order to promote collaboration amongst the four local authorities in the west as part of the budget agreement. We have an opportunity now across the west to share good practice, and an opportunity to work strategically and to begin attracting new investment to the west, because leaving the European Union without any kind of deal would be no less than a disaster for these poor, rural, westerly, Welsh-speaking regions. So, we must redouble our efforts on behalf of the area, and one clear step that these westerly counties have to take is to collaborate in order to attract investment in modern infrastructure and quality jobs in these deprived areas.

The concern of people in my constituency is that the growth deal won’t actually extend to the north-west, and so I look forward to seeing a powerful new region coming into play in the west in order to counterbalance the failures of Welsh Government and the United Kingdom Government to invest in a large part of our country. Perhaps then we can create a nation where every part of the nation has the opportunity to prosper.