Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. The UK's exit from the European Union represents the most significant and demanding challenge, constitutionally, legally, economically, that we in Wales have faced since the advent of devolution. The uncertainty that surrounds both the process and the outcome has the potential to cause enormous damage to our nation. It is the scale of the challenge, the continuing uncertainty, the rapid movement of events and the potential dangers surrounding Brexit that form the backdrop to the motions that have been tabled before this National Assembly this afternoon. Llywydd, these are highly unusual times, and it is the nature of these times that explains the highly unusual proposition that the National Assembly consent to an emergency Bill. 

As set out in the statement that was tabled alongside the motions, the Welsh Government has accepted, ever since June 2016, that the outcome of the referendum takes the United Kingdom out of the European Union. But the vote to leave the EU was not a vote to reverse devolution. It is this Government's duty, and I believe that of this Assembly, to ensure that, in the act of leaving, the interests of Wales and its people are given every possible protection.