I'm very pleased to congratulate the committee for this interesting and informative report, which is very balanced and fair. One of the things that has impressed me about this Assembly since I've been here is the way that these committees do work effectively with a cross-party consensus view very, very often. I would also like to commend the committee members for the immense amount of work that has gone into producing this report, which was referred to by David Melding. I always listen to his speeches, as I do, indeed, to my neighbour, Simon Thomas's speeches, on this subject with great interest, and I never fail to learn something.

I've got little to add to what's been said already. I agree with everything that's been said in this debate so far. It's very important, of course, for Members from Mid and West Wales in particular. We've got more coastline and more water than anyone else in this Assembly and I'm the third of our four Members for the region to take part in the debate today, and the only other one is precluded from doing so by being a member of the Government. I think that underlines the significance that we give to this. Some of the best coastal areas of Wales, and some of them the most interesting coastal waters, are in our region. The majority of the Welsh marine protected areas, I think, are within our region—more than anywhere else.particular

The majority of the MPAs have been designated under EU legislation as special areas of conservation or special protection areas, and this is a precious resource that is vitally important for us, not just to recognise and designate, as the committee's report points out, but also to protect, defend and enhance. This is what, ultimately, it's all about. Site management and monitoring and enforcement are the next stage.

I'm very pleased to see that, in mentioning enforcement, the committee says that the Government should develop an enforcement strategy based on risks, because, inevitably, in environmental concerns, there are competing interests—not necessarily in conflict with one another—where different emphases might be put according to one's interest in the subject matter. I'll come to that, perhaps, in a moment. I agree with the committee's view that there should be no further designation of protected areas until the current suite of MPAs are brought into effective management.

Of course, the question of uncertainties related to Brexit inevitably rears its head in these circumstances, but post Brexit, the Welsh Government will be able to implement its own policy direction, as outlined in the committee report, and rationalise the existing regime. I support a two-tier system of MPAs without reducing the levels of protection, as the committee has recommended. I think it's an advantage to us in future that rather than automatically accepting EU legislation, UK and Welsh Ministers will have the opportunity to designate marine conservation zones, and I agree with the committee's recommendation that this should be a priority if it is to be achieved.

I'm pleased that the Cabinet Secretary has guaranteed that there will be no diminution in funding following the EU, and I hope her letter to Mike Hedges of 2 November puts this firmly to bed, where she says,

'I have made it clear on a number of occasions I do not expect Wales to lose any funding as a result of Brexit.'

And I'm very, very pleased to hear that.

Concerns have been expressed by some over accountability and monitoring mechanisms, but I think that the Welsh Government is perfectly capable of doing everything that the EU does, and more, and I hope it will do. I will just refer to the evidence of the Welsh Fishermen's Association, because when I mentioned earlier on that there are different interests that need to be reconciled, to an extent, with one another, of course balancing marine management with historic fishing rights is very important, as I said yesterday in the other debate. We do need to develop our seas and help them achieve their economic potential in the future, particularly as some of the poorer areas in Wales are in coastal areas, where the fishing industry has great opportunities now to expand. I hope that we can do that without in any way compromising the other environmental benefits that the Government proposes and the committee recommends us to concentrate on.

So, I'll just conclude by saying that the EU has, in my opinion, been no ally, really, for those working in Welsh and British waters, from fishermen to conservationists over the years. And although the EU's record is improving, it has a shocking record, in fact, over most of the period of our membership for the depletion of the seas and the depredation of fishing species. I'm pleased that the real errors of the CAP are now being addressed, and once we have firm control of fishing policy under our own hands here in Cardiff, I'm sure that we will do even better than we're doing at the moment.