The following amendments have been selected: amendment 1 in the name of Neil Hamilton, amendment 2 in the name of Paul Davies, and amendment 3 in the name of Julie James. If amendment 1 is agreed, amendments 2 and 3 will be deselected. If amendment 2 is agreed, amendment 3 will be deselected.

This brings us to the Plaid Cymru debate on young people and communities, and I call on Simon Thomas to move the motion.

Motion NDM6692 Rhun ap Iorwerth

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Notes that many communities across Wales experience significant outward migration of young people to other parts of Wales, the UK and beyond.

2. Recognises the contribution of young people to the resilience and sustainability of Welsh communities.

3. Welcomes Plaid Cymru’s success in securing funding for a young farmers grant scheme to help retain and attract young people in rural areas.

4. Regrets the current Welsh Government’s failure to create opportunities for young people to choose to live and work in their communities.

5. Calls on the Welsh Government to:

a) improve the economic opportunities afforded to young people in communities in all parts of Wales;

b) provide better support for business start-ups in Wales and enhance the digital and transport infrastructure which they rely upon;

c) support a new regional approach to retain young people in areas under particular pressure as a result of outward migration e.g. the Arfor region and the valleys;

d) examine whether existing or new national institutions can be located in areas in Wales which require greater job opportunities;

e) provide affordable housing and reform the planning system to enable young people to stay and/or return to live in their communities; and

f) respond positively to the Diamond Review’s recommendation to incentivise students who study away to return to Wales after graduation.

Motion moved.

Thank you very much, Llywydd. I'm very pleased to be able to put forward this motion today in the name of Rhun ap Iorwerth. The debate gets to grips with one of the major social, economic and cultural issues of our time, namely the outward migration of young people from many of our communities, and the number of communities across Wales that are suffering because of that outward migration. Now, very often, evidence that is used to discuss this issue is anecdotal, but the Government's figures themselves give a disheartening picture of the truth of the situation in some authorities in Wales, and I'd like to look at some of those authorities—some of which I represent.

So, if you were to look at Ynys Môn, Gwynedd, Ceredigion and Carmarthen—that is, the part of Wales that we have been battling for in terms of 'Arfor', which is the concept of bringing the authorities together to take economic action—over the past decade, 117,000 young people between 15 and 29 have left those local authority areas, which corresponds to more than 55 per cent of all outward migration of all ages. So, more than half the people who have left those coastal authorities in west Wales—more than half of those who have left are young people, and that's over 100,000 of them. We can't afford to lose so many young people from our western areas, our rural areas and Welsh-speaking areas, and still have that dream of 1 million Welsh speakers. It's clear that we need to get to grips with this problem.

If we look at Ceredigion itself, Llywydd—the area that you represent, and I do on a regional basis—the situation, if anything, is even worse. It is an area or county with two universities in it, but 3,670 young people left the county in one year alone, namely 2015-16. If you look at the figure in the last census, that corresponds to 20 per cent of all the young people leaving Ceredigion. Now, that is a genuine brain drain from that county. Put simply, one in five people in Ceredigion leaves the county every year, according to that spot survey, with many of them not returning unless they retire after working somewhere outside of the county.

Now, the effect on the Welsh language is something that we can comprehend and lament, but it's also to be seen in the figures since the 1991 census. The number of Welsh speakers, on average, in the four counties that I have mentioned in the west has fallen in every one: in Anglesey, from 62 per cent to 57 per cent; in Gwynedd, from 72 per cent to 65 per cent; in Ceredigion, from 59 per cent to under half of the population—47 per cent; and in Carmarthenshire, which saw the largest fall, from 55 per cent to 44 per cent. That's where the language ceases to be the community or indigenous language.

In the report 'The Welsh Language in Carmarthenshire', which was published in 2014, the decline in the Welsh language was demonstrated, and it was shown that the outward migration of young people from Carmarthenshire, once they had left school, had led directly to a decline in the Welsh language. That report was prepared by the county council itself. In Carmarthenshire, for example, according to the 2001 census, the number of residents from 3 to 15 years of age was around 28,000. But by the 2011 census, the number had fallen by over 10,000. So, almost 1,000 people leave Carmarthenshire, in a single census period, every year.

It's clear, therefore, that a significant number of our young people are leaving these westerly counties, and that the decline that we see in the percentage of Welsh speakers has been a constant pattern over many decades, and is partly responsible for the decline in the Welsh language as a whole.   

However, it does need to be said that this trend is not limited to the western part of the country, or even to Welsh language communities, though it is most pronounced and obvious in those communities. If we take Cardiff, for example, there has been a 12 per cent net inflow of young people into Cardiff, whereas, as I've said, in Ceredigion, we've seen an almost 20 per cent outflow. Something is driving this, and it isn't just economics. It's also culture and it's also education. These all need to be tackled if we are to strengthen our communities and the role of young people in our communities.

So, we do need an all-Wales approach, and in this debate I will set out—or, more specifically, some of my colleagues will set out—some specific ideas within the concept of 'Arfor' and the concept of some of the other policies we have to reverse this worrying trend. Some of those might include better support for business start-ups, because, clearly, young people who may be leaving their communities are entrepreneurial in their own attitudes. They're leaving something that's quite safe and familiar to them, going elsewhere, and that sort of spirit can be matched and used within their own communities, perhaps in the field of digital or transport infrastructure—something that gives them the opportunity to remain at least within somewhere around their locality but to use their entrepreneurial or their cultural interest in wider opportunities. 

The second element of this is to either enhance or relocate some national institutions to areas of Wales that require greater job opportunities—Siân Gwenllian has fought very hard to retain Welsh Government jobs in Caernarfon, for example—this is part of why we do this; a new regional approach to retain young people in areas under particular pressure as regards outward migration, that's the 'Arfor' concept, which we negotiated some resources for, which I think have been increased, actually, as the local authorities in those areas have seen the possibility of working together along the western seaboard to better enhance their communities; and, specifically, to respond positively to the Diamond review's recommendation to incentivise students who study away to return to Wales after graduation. 

Clearly, the farming community and rural communities are also an important part of this, Llywydd. We recently secured £6 million as part of our budget agreement with the Welsh Government for a young farmers grant scheme, which I'm pleased to see has now been announced by the Welsh Government, and publicity is starting to flow out. But we need to build on that, for example to get hold of the lack of banking facilities in many rural communities, to enhance people's ability to gain bank loans to enable them to take part in schemes like this, and to attract new entrants to a vital industry, where just 3 per cent of farmers are aged under 35.

We also will be looking at health and education in these reports, and I don't want to repeat what might be in the speeches of Rhun ap Iorwerth and Llyr Gruffydd, but we know from our research that here in Wales we have the lowest percentage of home-grown graduates who have been trained in medical skills. We also know that we are, in effect, funding an outmigration of our best students out of Wales with our own public policy money. There are good reasons for that, but there are good reasons as well to go back to the Diamond review and the central feature of Plaid Cymru's manifesto, which is about attracting graduates back to Wales and seeing those skills that they have had invested in them by investment from Welsh Government money back in the Welsh economy, back through developing our own ideas. 

I very much look forward to this debate because I hope it will be a debate that will be taken in the spirit in which it's meant, which is that we have an ongoing crisis about youth opportunities, in effect, in many parts of Wales and we need to address that. I will address the amendments when we come to the end of the debate. I will respect people's opinions, and to explain those amendments to us in one or two cases, but, certainly, we hope to be able to give this Assembly, over the next hour or so, some positive ideas for how we go and help tackle the outward migration of young people, but more importantly give opportunities for our young people in their own communities.

I have selected the three amendments to the motion. If amendment 1 is agreed, amendments 2 and 3 will be deselected. If amendment 2 is agreed, amendment 3 will be deselected. I therefore call on Michelle Brown to move amendment 1, tabled in the name of Neil Hamilton. Michelle Brown.

Amendment 1. Neil Hamilton

Delete all and replace with:

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Notes Plaid Cymru’s compact with the Labour-led Welsh Government from 2016-2017 and the One Wales coalition agreement with the Labour-led Welsh Government from 2007-2011, and believes that current and past Welsh Governments have failed to create opportunities for young people to choose to live and work in their communities.

2. Calls on the Welsh Government to work with the UK Government to create well-paid jobs for young people in Wales’s communities by taking action that includes:

a) reducing mass immigration, and its associated squeeze on the wages of unskilled and semi-skilled occupations, as revealed in Bank of England working paper, 'The Impact of Immigration on Occupational Wages';

b) reducing taxes and regulation on all businesses, especially small and medium sized enterprises;

c) reducing the income tax and national insurance burden;

d) abandoning the man-made global warming and decarbonisation agenda, and its associated green subsidies, which transfer wealth from the poor to the rich;

e) encouraging policy makers and planners to stimulate the creation of well-paid jobs in rural areas, villages and smaller towns, rather than just large cities; and

f) cutting the non-humanitarian foreign aid budget and redirecting the savings proportionately to the people of Wales.

Amendment 1 moved.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. While Plaid's motion is well meaning and the kind of thing that should be supported, I must point out that it's a bit rich of them to be criticising Labour failures over the last decade when, until the end of last year, Plaid were openly propping them up by their compact and before that by the 'One Wales' coalition agreement. However, Plaid have highlighted a long-term problem, but it's a problem that can only be solved through the creation of jobs, which, in turn, is reliant on a prosperous business sector. Neither Plaid nor Labour treat businesses with anything other than contempt or ignorance. 

That is why UKIP's amendment calls on the Welsh Government to work with the UK Government to create well-paid jobs for young people in Wales's communities by taking real action. Reducing mass immigration will encourage businesses to train the current available workforce, as well as promote wage growth, and was a clear factor in the EU referendum debate. Reducing tax and regulation on businesses has the obvious effect of freeing up money to invest in employment and training, and would make us a more attractive place to base a business than any other part of the UK. More businesses would come here and bring job opportunities with them. Those of us who have worked in the private sector know the realities of the commercial world, and if it creates jobs and opportunities for young Welsh people, then tax cuts for businesses is a step well-worth taking.

The same has to be said for dropping the decarbonisation agenda and subsidies. It's all very well to say that we should all play our part—and of course we should—but the obsessive virtue signalling that Plaid and Labour have indulged in over the years is costing our people a great deal of money, while having a negligible effect on global carbon levels. When I read Labour's self-congratulatory amendment, I was struck by the fact that they still don't get it. Really, really, really they still don't get it.

After all this time and criticism, they're still unaware that there's a problem. For example, nowhere in their amendment is any mention of the obvious and dire need to spread improvements across Wales. To be fair, Plaid's motion does do that, and it makes reference to regionality, but this Government's amendment doesn't address it at all. They're content to do nothing to encourage planners and policy makers to take steps to stimulate prosperity in areas other than cities. This is such a significant problem for Wales that Labour's omission of it can only be because they have no answer to it. It is important to remember, but I suspect you won't when you argue against—. I'm sorry, I've missed a bit. 

The final point of UKIP's amendment relates to foreign aid, and I'm sure a number of you will speak about that later, but it's important to remember—and I suspect you won't when you argue against it—that what we're talking about here is non-humanitarian foreign aid. There's nothing unfair about telling a charity boss who's earning £100k a year that we won't fund a non-essential project of his, because our young people are struggling to find jobs, even on the minimum wage, and we need to help them instead. 

In all, UKIP's amendment takes the Plaid motion and adds detail to it, detail that isn't otherwise there. It offers radical solutions to a serious problem—a problem that clearly requires radical solutions since none of the half-hearted attempts by Labour, supported by Plaid, have made a jot of difference. I urge Members to finally take a bold step and back our amendments. Thank you.  

I call on Darren Millar to move amendment 2, tabled in the name of Paul Davies. 

Amendment 2. Paul Davies

Delete all and replace with:

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Welcomes the UK Government's ambitious, modern Industrial Strategy which sets out a long term plan to boost the productivity and earning power of young people throughout Wales and the UK.

2. Notes the figures released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency which show Welsh graduates earn less than anywhere else in the UK.

3. Regrets that since 1999, successive Labour Welsh Governments – supported by other parties – have failed to lift the educational and economic prosperity of young people in Wales.

4. Calls on the Welsh Government to increase employment opportunities for young people and support for businesses and entrepreneurs by:

a) abolishing business rates for all small businesses (up to £15,000);

b)  introducing free bus travel and discounted rail cards for all 16-24 year olds; and

c)  increasing the opportunities for younger people to secure finance for start-ups.

Amendment 2 moved.

Diolch, Llywydd. Can I move the amendment on behalf of my colleague, Paul Davies, tabled for the Welsh Conservatives? 

Obviously, you would expect us not to be supporting the original motion, given that it's got some congratulations in there to Plaid Cymru. That's not something that we're prepared to do, but we understand the spirit in which it's been laid, and it is right and proper that you've raised some very important issues.

We certainly won't be supporting the UKIP amendment either, particularly given the focus on cutting the foreign aid budget, because we all know that foreign aid actually serves the UK's national interests very, very well indeed. The international aid budget is an important part of our overseas mission, if you like, in order to influence the world, and I think it's very important to recognise that. And that's why we will not be supporting your amendment. 

Of course, we won't be supporting, either, the Government's amendment, which, again, as has already been pointed out, is rather self-congratulatory and doesn't seem to recognise that we have a problem here that needs to be addressed. 

If I can speak for a few moments to our amendment, of course we're calling upon the National Assembly to welcome what is a very ambitious UK Government industrial strategy—a strategy that sets out opportunities, we believe, in order to turn the situation around, so that young people throughout Wales can have more opportunities to get decent jobs that will help to keep them in our nation.    

Will you take an intervention? 

Yes. 

I thank the Member for taking the intervention. Are you therefore ashamed that the strategy doesn't actually highlight steel and the importance of steel, particularly in the Welsh economy, which does provide opportunities for our young people, because Tata have taken on 85 apprentices this year for that purpose? The fact that they're not supporting steel shows that they actually aren't interested in the engineering sector at all.   

Look, as you well know, the UK Government is fully supportive of the British steel industry, and just this last week has been speaking out against the tariffs that are being imposed in the United States. And I think it's important that you should listen more carefully to the UK Government and the important job that it has done in championing the Welsh steel industry and the wider steel industry across the UK.

But, of course, the industrial strategy does point to the need for more opportunities for people to undertake vocational training and qualifications, including many more apprenticeships. I think we need to be very concerned, actually, that, for all the lip service that's paid to vocational qualifications in this Chamber on all sides of the house, we're not yet in a position where vocational training and qualifications have parity of esteem with academic qualifications. We know that the practical experience that young people get when they have access to good, high-quality vocational training can set them up in careers and give them an advantage, actually, over those individuals who have undertaken purely academic routes into their chosen career subjects.

In addition to that as well, we are expressing this concern about the fact that many Welsh graduates earn less here than in other parts of the UK. I think it's an absolute tragedy that only 68 per cent of graduates from Welsh universities earned over £21,000 in full-time employment, the lowest of any of the UK nations and regions, and that only 55 per cent of people who studied at Welsh universities were working in Wales three and a half years later. We've got to create more opportunities to keep that talent here in Wales. And I think that what we see in other parts of the UK is individuals who are going from Wales to study elsewhere and end up settling over there because they've got better economic opportunities. That cannot be right, and we need to address it.

In addition to that, we've identified one thing that we think would help to make Wales more attractive for young people, and that is our green card proposal, which we laid out before the National Assembly some time ago—late last year. We have suggested that we help our young people with support in accessing public transport in order to get them around. We know that Wales is a rural nation. It's very costly to travel long distances to work, and I think that the least that we can do is to give them free bus travel and reduced fares on our rail services. Our proposals have been welcomed by the Confederation of Passenger Transport here in Wales, Arriva Bus have spoken very positively about our proposals, and, of course, they could help to sustain bus services where they are currently threatened because of a lack of investment from local transport grants, which have not been made available by local authorities. Young people face the highest insurance costs out of everybody when they go to insure their cars. So, these transport costs are a barrier to young people staying in Wales. We need to address them, and so I hope that you will recognise that our amendment seeks to bring some solutions to the table, and that's why I'm happy to move it. 

I call on the Minister for Children and Social Care to move formally amendment 3, tabled in the name of Julie James.

Amendment 3. Julie James

Delete all after point 3 and replace with:

Recognises the support the Welsh Government provides for young people, including through:

a) Jobs Growth Wales, which has supported more than 18,000 young people into good-quality employment;

b) high-quality apprenticeships and the commitment made by the Welsh Government to create a minimum of 100,000 all-age apprenticeships this Assembly term;

c) access to housing as 10,000 affordable homes were built in the fourth Assembly and the Welsh Government plans to deliver a further 20,000 this Assembly term;

d) supporting students’ living costs by ensuring they will receive the equivalent of the national living wage while they study;

e) maintaining the NHS Bursary to support young people to start a career in NHS Wales; and

f) investing £100m to raise school standards across Wales over the course of this Assembly term.

Amendment 3 moved.

Formally.

I wish to make a short contribution. I understand and support the intent behind Plaid's motion, but I want to suggest that it's perhaps rather conservative and orthodox in its focus. Rather than trying to retain young people by relocating national institutions or giving grants to farmers, I think we need to be looking far more clearly at the challenges we know are coming our way. So, I want to suggest two areas where I think the National Assembly ought to be focusing if we want to achieve what we all aspire to, which is making young people feel that they can stay in their communities to create a career, rather than feeling that they have to—

Will you take an intervention?

Just let me make some progress because, with respect, I haven't finished my opening paragraph yet. I'm happy to take an intervention—

You've already said something I disagree with. [Laughter.]

Excellent. Well, you often say things I disagree with; that's the nature of debate. Let me just make my point and then we can discuss it.

For example, I think one of the things we should be seizing on for our rural communities is not simply giving grants of £40,000—rather unfocused—to young farmers to set up businesses, but to focus that funding on what we know are going to be the industries and challenges of the future. I speak particularly of precision agriculture, which this National Assembly has already agreed we should develop a national strategy for, and the Welsh Government is yet to do anything about it. 

I think that precision agriculture not only has the ability to allow our farmers to become much more productive; it also, excitingly, has the ability to create industries in rural Wales where we service this technology, where we create the software, where we maintain the machinery, and where we build new global industries that are particularly calibrated to the type of rural conditions we have in Wales that exist in other parts of the world. That's where, I think, the focus should be, not in the same old thinking, but in looking at how we can look at new developments.

We've discussed before in this Chamber the remarkable results that have been achieved through precision agriculture. In New Zealand, where they've managed to increase their exports to China by 470 per cent in one year by harnessing precision agriculture. And there's good work happening in Wales on this in the Gelli Aur college part of Coleg Sir Gâr. There is some really innovative work going on that both helps the environment and helps to create added value. So, I would make the argument that, in future, we should be targeting support, which we can agree on between ourselves, on these potential future growth areas rather than simply doing the same old thing time and again.

The other thing I want to suggest that would help achieve the intent of this motion is something we've also discussed. Can I just make—?

Just on that point.

Okay.

I agree with you, the strategy around precision agriculture is great, but couldn't some of those grants to the young farmers be used in specific areas as pilot studies for that?

Well, I'd warmly welcome that; that is not in the scheme that's been agreed between the Government and Plaid Cymru, as I understand it. If there was able to be a much sharper focus on that, I think that would be an excellent thing. But that is not what I understand has been agreed. If you're willing to tell me I'm wrong, I'd be delighted to put that on the record. But, it's not too late to shape this. I would certainly happily work with Plaid Cymru to try and influence the Government in this direction because that's where I think our support should be being put.

And the second point, which we've also discussed in this Chamber, is the idea of the foundational economy that really could help rural areas. We have put far too much emphasis over many years on orthodox approaches to attracting industry in, and I think we've debated many times the need to harness the everyday businesses and economies that exist in our communities. The businesses are there because the people are there. The industries that fuel the food that we eat, the homes we live in and the care that we receive; these account for four in 10 jobs, and we need a far sharper focus on this.

I was very disappointed in the Government's economic action plan that talks about foundational sectors almost as a sleight of hand for not addressing the need to harness the foundational economy, which is a different paradigm shift approach to the way we do economic development in this country. I was very disappointed that having given the impression of supporting that idea, in fact that idea is not being supported in the economic action plan. That is the sort of thing we can develop to give people incentives to stay in their communities and to have an ambition around both those things, that there can be a future for future generations in the communities that people have grown up with. So, I think we need to move away from the established solutions and think a little more imaginatively.

I count myself as being very lucky to be living on the island where I was brought up. I have lived in Cardiff, I have lived in London, I have spent time working overseas, but I chose to return to Anglesey around 13 years ago, and it does mean a lot to me. Everyone is different, of course. Wherever you are in the world, there are young people who can't wait to leave their square mile, who want to go and see the world, to break free from the shackles of their youth. I don't doubt that I myself felt the same when I was in my teens. We're certainly not asking the young people of Wales to limit their horizons here.

But, many young people, as they turn into slightly older people, do see value in their community, in their square mile, but they find themselves in a situation where they can't see how they can settle in their communities and raise their families in their square miles. The situation where young people want to stay in their square mile, but see that they don't have any options and have no choice but to leave, is heartbreaking. I'm living in the midst of it, and I'm not content to just accept that that's the way it is and that we can't do anything about it, because there are things that we can do, and I'm very pleased to be part of this debate this afternoon, so that we can discuss some of these ideas—ideas from across the parties, hopefully.

We do have to ensure that there are homes for our young people; we have to ensure that there are training opportunities available; we have to ensure that jobs are available. We need to promote small businesses, to promote entrepreneurship—I agree entirely with the Member for Llanelli—to promote innovation, not just in the policies that we create here, but in what's happening at a grass-roots level on the ground, so that our rural communities in Wales are a cradle of innovation and an exciting place to live and work in.

I remember when Anglesey Aluminium closed. Good friends of mine left the island. The schools lost children; my children lost friends. Those families were heartbroken, and I think of one family in particular who returned to the nuclear industry, as it happens. I'll refer to nuclear quickly. There are honourable people who are opposed to nuclear in principle who criticise me, sometimes, for being willing to collaborate with the new Wylfa development. I'm not a cheerleader for nuclear at all, I would far prefer to see investment going into renewable energy, but I see those young people, young people who perhaps have the skills in nuclear already, who say, 'Rhun, please help us to have a future'. They want to stay in Anglesey and I want them to stay. There is a mix that we need to look at in that regard.

But I'll turn to another area that is important to me, which is opportunities in healthcare. Perhaps you will have heard me, Siân Gwenllian and others say, perhaps, that we want to see a medical education facility in Bangor. That's something that we've said very often. But we do need to train more doctors, and we need to do that in rural parts of Wales. Less than one third of students in medical schools in Wales come from Wales. The figure is 80 per cent in Northern Ireland, and, in England, I think it's around 50 per cent, and a little more in Scotland. I have seen figures that show that almost three quarters of our young people in Wales who want to go into medicine end up working in the NHS in England. Now, that brain drain is something that should frighten every one of us. It is a general brain drain. We're losing far too many of our brightest young people, our human capital, and we are losing the social contribution that they can make. 

But, of course, the NHS needs them as well—we're short of doctors. I will mention some statistics here. One series of studies shows that what contributes to where doctors work in terms of their commitment to rural areas, is, first, whether they have a rural background themselves, second, the access to rural medicine during their studies, and, third, training targeted towards working in a rural area. Now, in Norway, 56 per cent of graduates from medical schools in Tromsø, in the north of Norway, remain in those rural areas. Of those who have been brought up in those rural areas, the percentage is even higher—82 per cent, according to the figures that I have. We need to train doctors in rural parts of Wales to keep them in rural Wales. That's only one part of the picture that could give new energy to our rural areas and Wales as a whole, because we can't afford to lose our young people any more.   

Can I thank Plaid Cymru for bringing forward this important debate today? I'm glad that, as a young Member of this Assembly, I'm able to contribute to this debate about young people and about future generations. I'm going to use my time today in this debate to focus on employment and lifelong learning and how we can ensure that we continue to have young people who contribute to Welsh communities.

Many of you know that, before I entered this place, I was a research and development engineer based at a company on Deeside industrial estate. Before that, I started off as an apprentice machinist, supported by Welsh Government funding and my sponsor employer. Now, doing an apprenticeship gave me the opportunities that I wouldn't have had if I had gone directly to university. That said, I was very lucky enough to have the opportunity to get my degree, again, through the Welsh Government and support from my sponsor employer.

We know that we need to make our economy as open as possible for young people, but we shouldn't have a one-size-fits-all approach, so, regardless of who you are and where you come from, you should have access to good-quality employment, you should have the support to go to university, you should have access and the opportunity to take a high-quality apprenticeship, and you should have the support to become an entrepreneur and start your own business. Finally, you should have the support to get continued professional development in whatever profession you are or choose to follow.

We need to be a country that welcomes and celebrates young people who have a wide range of different skills and skillsets. I remember very fondly during the campaign in the by-election in February visiting a local primary school in my constituency where I met a group of young children who are part of the school's youth parliament. Huw joined me on that visit, and it was a great visit and I'm sure he was very proud to join me and see those young children there on that day. Now, one of the questions I asked them was what they wanted to do when they grew up and what were their future plans. It was a very difficult question, and it's a very difficult question for all ages to answer, but they all had different hopes and ambitions for the future. Each one of them had a different idea at that point in time of what they wanted to do when they grew up. We are letting them down as a Government, as a country, if we do not support our future generations and if we do not take advantage of that amazing potential that we have in Wales. Each one of those children in that school on that day, and Huw will back me up on this, and each child across the country can contribute to the success of our special communities right across Wales. Thank you.

Plaid Cymru, of course, believes that Welsh students should be able to study in the world's best universities and have every opportunity to live and work abroad. We also recognise that we need to tackle the problem that Wales, at the moment, is suffering a net loss of graduates, while simultaneously we do have skills gaps in crucial sectors such as medicine and the other STEM subjects. We heard reference to those yesterday and today in the Chamber.

According to a report published by the Resolution Foundation in August of last year, Wales attracted almost 24,000 graduates between 2013 and 2016, but over 44,000 left. That's a deficit of 20,000. Now, the only area where that difference was greater was Yorkshire and Humberside and the northeast of England. The Diamond review has recognised, as we've already heard, quite clearly the need to attract graduates to live and work in Wales. Diamond recommended that the Welsh Government should encourage students to bring their skills back or to retain their skills here for the benefit of Wales, and he insisted that the Welsh Government should consider how this could be achieved by, for example, allowing the cancellation of student loans or cancellation in part of the loans of those working in posts in Wales where there was a need for a loan repayment. Now, we're still awaiting the Government's response to that recommendation to all intents and purposes.

Now, Plaid Cymru favours a move from supporting students through the student support programme to maintenance grants, because we are aware that living costs are a barrier to many in accessing university education, and, in the long term, like everyone else would agree, I'm sure, we should ensure that there is education available free of charge for all. But the reality is that the situation persists where we have failed to tackle this brain drain as a nation. We are losing this crucial information from our economy as young people leave to study elsewhere and, far too often, they don't return.

I think it's important to make the point that it's not only young graduates that need to be considered as those who have the vital skills to contribute to the Welsh economy, of course. Over two thirds of young people don't go to university, and we as a party have mooted the youth basic income, of course, which would be based on four key pillars: a guaranteed job in the first place, preferably, but that's clearly not always possible. The other options would be a true national citizens' service, a paid 12-month placement similar to the AmeriCorps model; support for both higher and further education, removing some of the artificial divides between the two in doing so; and the option, of course, of a new enterprise allowance, assisting young people to start new businesses. Now, we can learn some of these lessons from trials being carried out elsewhere. Finland is trialling a universal basic income, and feasibility studies are being carried out in Scotland as well, where four councils are building the first pilot schemes in the UK, supported by a £250,000 grant announced by the Scottish Government. And, in terms of a basic income for young people, last summer, New Zealand's The Opportunities Party proposed a universal basic income policy for young people aged between 18 and 23 to support their transition into adulthood, and young people there would receive $10,000 per year, divided into weekly installments of $200, to support them in that critical period of self development.

How many of us here remember the Llwybro-Routes project some years ago, which tracked young people and promoted opportunities for them to return to Wales? You would register with the scheme, and, if you had specific qualifications and had moved away, if there were opportunities that demanded those qualifications in the area where you were brought up, you would be informed of that and there would be an opportunity for you to apply for those posts and to return.

Now, I'm aware that, in India, where depopulation in rural areas with outward migration to the cities is a huge problem, there is a specific scheme there to retain those connections between someone who has skills—let's say you're an accountant working in the city, you retain that connection with your home community, where you can perhaps use some of those skills to help local committees with their annual audits and so on. There's a great deal that we can do, and that figure of 117,000 people having left the western region was very striking, and it brought to mind a scheme run by one local authority in the west of Ireland that responds directly to depopulation, where they proactively work to attract people back. They are almost a recruitment agency, but they are also a marketing agency that packages an offer: 'Come back to work in a green, healthy area, an environmentally friendly area where, with the rural schools, the classes are smaller and the pupil-teacher ratio is smaller'—it's a marketing campaign, almost, where they package the offer in a very attractive way to attract those people back to those communities. 

Now, there are suggestions in the motion, but the foundation of the motion, ultimately, is that the Welsh Government has to be far more creative in tackling this problem, which is a very real problem within our communities.

I welcome Plaid Cymru's debate on young people and communities in Wales, and, in particular, I welcome the emphasis on tackling the outward migration of young people from our communities to other parts of Wales, or to the UK, or to the rest of the world. Immigration is one factor affecting the demographics of our society, but emigration is where a devolved Government can make more of a difference, through housing policy, through higher education policy, and a whole range of policy levers mentioned in the Plaid Cymru motion available this afternoon.

It's important to begin by recognising the right of young people to live, to work, to travel and to study across a wide range of territories. At no point do we want to seek to limit young people's wider horizons. But we want the retention of young people to be recognised as a goal for public policy. For those who have moved away, we want to incentivise them to return to Wales, and, for those who have moved within Wales, we want to ensure that job opportunities are available as evenly as possible, right throughout the country. So, two main goals of public policy should be to retain a higher number of young people in Wales nationally, and to ensure a healthy distribution of young people across the country, with particular attention to rural and semi-urban areas.

I'd like to mention the specific situation in the former coalfield. Looking at the statistics, the local authorities in the former south Wales coalfield have usually experienced a net loss of 15 to 29-year-olds over each of the past five years. Rhondda Cynon Taf has occasionally experienced a small net inflow of 15 to 29-year-olds, but not often. In Blaenau Gwent, in Merthyr Tydfil, Caerphilly, Neath Port Talbot, there is a consistent net loss of 15 to 29-year-olds. We know that young people will travel to bigger cities for work or to study, but these numbers, which include people in their late 20s, could look far healthier if we were able to provide more job opportunities closer to people's home communities. The location of young adults shouldn't simply be left to the market to decide. The market is clearly failing, and when the market fails, there should be Government intervention in the form of incentives and opportunities to ensure that we have vibrant communities in place of declining communities.

So, why does Plaid Cymru believe this? Why does it matter where people live and work? Young people, especially young adults, contribute to the resilience of communities. They are a barometer as to how viable a community is. They contribute to population growth, either by themselves or as families, which sustains services like schools, GP surgeries, shops, pubs and so on. Everyone in this Chamber who represents a former industrial-type community will know that we have seen a number of those services wither away as our population growth has stagnated.

Llywydd, I would like to see changes to the planning system that enable affordable housing to be developed, targeted specifically at young people. I would like to see public sector jobs located in areas that need a helping hand to stimulate other economic activity. I would also urge the Government to improve the digital infrastructure so that people can work closer to home and can start businesses within their own communities.

I don't think the amendments from the Government, or from the other opposition parties, go far enough. Mentioning incentives that have already happened won't make a difference. Mentioning Governments from a decade ago won't make any difference. We need new ideas and I urge this Assembly this afternoon to endorse Plaid Cymru's ideas in this motion today.

I call the Minister for Children and Social Care, Huw Irranca-Davies.

Diolch, Llywydd. I'm delighted to take part in this debate today and welcome the spirit and the wide-ranging, actually, contributions to this debate as well. We may disagree, at the end of this, on where our voting preferences will lie, but I think it's quite healthy, in terms of the debate, that we've had such a wide range, across the sphere here, of suggestions on how—if I can just borrow Jack's contribution for a moment—we become a country that welcomes and celebrates young people and also, I have to say, retains them and wants them. I say this as somebody, myself, who was born in Gowerton, moved away, went away to university, came back and worked, went away again with work, came back, went away again with work and came back.

You don't look that old. [Laughter.]

I've filled a lot into these years, I tell you. 

But part of it has been because of the availability of economic opportunities within my own communities. Part of it, I have to say as well, has been the draw of Wales and the desire to come home. I will say something before I return to the individual contributions, of which there have been many in this debate: it is interesting that sometimes we have doom and gloom and despair about everybody flowing out from Wales, absolutely disappearing, and yet—and I am a classic example of somebody who has done this—if we look at graduates of Wales, the majority of Welsh graduates remain or return to Wales after they've studied. The majority do. Three quarters of Welsh leavers from UK universities in employment—this is a 2016 figure—six months after graduation were working in Wales. They've made a positive choice.

I can actually see this in my own constituency. I can tell you this. Sony, which has been through massive changes over the years—one of the things they have is the Sony Pencoed technology park. They have about 30 companies there—some high tech, digital, as well as manufacturing—right at the cutting edge of technology. I spoke to three individuals there who had set up a company. This company are global leaders in supplying the batteries that work the mobile antennae around the country. They're global leaders. Of the three of them, one is Canadian, one is from Cardiff, and one is from India. All three of them studied at Cardiff University—in business, in engineering et cetera. They all chose to actually stay in Wales and work. Now, that's what we need to see more of. I often use this phrase: we can see what 'good' looks like. [Interruption.] Sorry, Darren; I'll take the intervention.

I appreciate that the majority are, but it's only just a majority. Forty-five per cent, three and a half years after they graduate, are not staying in Wales, and they're not coming back to Wales. Surely, that is a matter of concern for you, as is the level of salary that those individuals have as well, with 68 per cent not getting £21,000 or more. 

Yes, and we need to do more. I'll come to some of the things that were touched on in the debate, and also what we are already doing as well.

We've touched on out-migration, clearly, and the impact on the Welsh language is key, without a doubt, and it's more specific to certain areas as well. There are flows with the Welsh language. The Welsh language is increasing in some areas. In some areas it's declining, including in what we would regard as traditionally some of the heartland areas. And that is to do with economic opportunity. It's also to do with how we can make good, actually, what we have in theme 3 of the 'Cymraeg 2050' strategy, which focuses very much on those socioeconomic aspects of sustaining the Welsh language in these communities, but also that strategy of having a million Welsh speakers is also based on the idea of networks and living communities of Welsh, not some artificial sustenance. And we do need to do more on that. But the commitment of the Government is here and we are open to the ideas of how we actually develop this and take this forward.

Entrepreneurialism—undoubtedly, that is a way forward. Several contributors mentioned this from all parties. If you look at what we are currently doing—before we even decide, 'Let's do more new schemes'—but if you look at what we're doing through the youth entrepreneurship services, the Business Wales start-up loans, with over £18.5 million invested in over 2,000 start-ups in Wales, that's a business a day being encouraged to start up in Wales, in exactly the sort of constituencies and the set-ups we are talking about. How do we actually do more of that?

If you look at the microbusiness loan fund, which was launched in 2013 with £6 million, operated by the Development Bank of Wales, subsequently, we've increased the size of that, tripled it to £18 million. Now, that invests between £1,000 and £50,000 in start-ups and microbusinesses, and if you look at many of the communities we are talking about and the businesses that will stay in these communities, it's not putting the money into those who come and go, it's actually developing our own. When Meghan Markle turned up the other day and there was all the fuss over the jeans company that hit the headlines and everybody was paying £350 for a pair of jeans—it's not me, I have to say—but, that idea of growing our own businesses, we are putting the support in there now. And, yes, we can always do more, but that support is there indeed.

There were so many things that were covered. Lee, you mentioned challenging orthodox thinking. I entirely agree, and that's part of what these debates are. Certainly, in terms of precision agriculture, my own visits to agricultural colleges in Wales and in England showed the immense potential of that, including not only for better environmental farming, but also for jobs growth as well, and a different style of farming that is driven by technology on the farms as well. And we do need to do more on that.

On the foundational economy, if I can simply say that, whilst I understand the criticism that you've made of this, it's interesting that in 'Pathways to Prosperity' and the economic action plan going forward, one of the areas that I have responsibility for, which is a social care, is bolted in there in a very heavy-duty way, and it's been welcomed by the care sector, as it isn't a burden upon communities; it's actually one where, if we upskill people who are working in it, from domiciliary care workers to people who work in care homes, all of that, then what we can do is actually grow the economy, not just in parts of Wales, but in every single street, every single community, because everybody in Wales, whether you're somebody with learning disabilities, whether you are somebody who is older with dementia needs and so on—those care needs are right across the whole of Wales, and we can do more, as long as we input the value into the people who work within that sector as well. So, again, we can do more, but we're doing a lot on it already.

If I can turn to some of the amendments, we note the motion by Plaid Cymru. We will have different ideas about how to take this forward, but I just want to point out and put it in respect of our amendment as well that the latest GVA figures in Wales show that we are now the fastest-growing country in the UK. Our employment rate is continuing to grow. Yes, we need to make sure that those are the right jobs and are well-paid jobs as well, but the employment rate is continuing to grow. Our unemployment rate in Wales is now 5 per cent. It's down from 8.9 per cent in 2011. And I'm proud to say, actually—and I said this as an MP, and I say it now as an Assembly Member—that flagship employment programme, Jobs Growth Wales, has created over 29,000 job opportunities, with 18,000 young people finding high-quality work, and having the stepping stone to future opportunities as well.

Affordable homes have been touched on within this debate—absolutely right. We delivered on the commitment within this Welsh Government in the last term to develop 10,000 affordable homes. We are committed to going even further this time. How do we do it? We do it through my colleague here, Rebecca, launching the home ownership scheme through Help to Buy—Wales. We know that 75 per cent of those using the scheme were first-time buyers. These are affordable homes.

I acknowledge, I have to say, in terms of the motion that Plaid Cymru have put forward, that with their support we have now put forward that funding for 'Arfor' for over two years. It has established a young farmers grant. It has established a grant for journalists seeking to set up their own businesses, and we're also supporting that development fund for undergraduate medical training in north Wales to the tune of £14 million over two years. We're open to those ideas. We will work with those ideas. There is no monopoly on any benches of good ideas. But we're already doing such a lot, and we're only scratching at the surface of what we're doing.

If I can turn—. Oh, time has gone already. Could I turn very briefly to the amendment by UKIP, Presiding Officer?

Very briefly.

It covered a lot of non-devolved areas: immigration, tax, national insurance, foreign aid—all UK Government. It did also put up once again, I think, the shibboleth of climate change. I would simply say that climate change is one of those factors that is actually driving one of the other aspects of the amendment, which is migration and so on. It is a direct result of it, so we do need to tackle it.

So, finally, and to come back, I think, to sum up, I would urge colleagues, in hearing what I think has been a very good debate, very wide-ranging, with a lot of interesting contributions—I would urge colleagues, because of the work that is already set in place, and because of the fact that we're working and we're taking forward the suggestions on 'Arfor' and so on, to reject the motion as laid, and amendments 1 and 2, and instead support Government amendment 3 in the name of Julie James. Let's actually deliver—again, to reiterate the words of Jack Sargeant here in this Chamber today—a country that welcomes and celebrates young people right across Wales, wherever they are, wherever they live.

I call on Simon Thomas to reply to the debate.

Diolch, Llywydd. It wasn't a bad debate, at the end of the day, was it? I think we did get some good ideas from all parts of the Chamber, I agree. I would exclude one contribution from that, and I'll come to that in a second. But I do believe that we had some positive ideas for how we can strengthen our communities. Obviously I do not, and we do not, accept the amendments, but we certainly accept some of the ideas, because I think there are some good things there.

Can I start, however, with the one that I don't agree with—as you might expect, the contribution from Michelle Brown? I just want to put on the record that Plaid Cymru does not have a contempt for small business or business in Wales. The work we do in supporting business, particularly around business rates—. The Minister just referred to a flagship scheme, Jobs Growth Wales; that emerged from the coalition Plaid Cymru and Labour Government, and Ieuan Wyn Jones as the Minister during that coalition. So, I don't think Plaid has any apologies as a party that supports business and entrepreneurship in Wales.

I also need to say this: that decarbonisation—let's put aside climate change for a moment—is a massive opportunity for Wales. The growth we can have from decarbonisation in Wales, and in the communities we're talking about, because that's where the natural resources are that can power some of this growth, whether it's a hydroelectric scheme in Arfon or whether it's marine energy in Pembrokeshire—I think we should go for it, because they are ideas that will really give us a technological leap here in Wales and build on what we have. So, I don't accept that.

We don't need to debate foreign aid here. What we need to debate here is a fair funding formula for Wales. We're still stuck with the Barnett formula some 30 years after it was a temporary measure. We hear from the Minister for Finance himself that we're £4 billion down from what we would have as proper, fair funding for Wales. So, we don't need to go after the poorest in the world to look for fair funding for Wales. So, I think that's a rejection of those.

On the other ideas—I turn to Darren Millar. He was critical of us praising ourselves and then he went to praise the UK Government. I think they were Conservatives the last time I looked. I look forward to the day when Darren Millar can put down amendments to say what the Conservatives have achieved in budget agreements with any Government in this place. When he does that, he can criticise us. [Interruption.] Oh, if you insist, I'll give in.

You must have expected me to stand up at that point. I understand what you're saying about wanting long-term reform of the Barnett formula, and I think you'd have the support of most Members on that, but you must accept that under this UK Conservative Government, working with the Labour Welsh Government, we have at least got the fiscal framework, which is a start along that process that we didn't have a few years ago.

The fiscal framework is an important mechanism, but it is not a policy decision around fair funding. It's simply a mechanism that could deliver fair funding, but needs a policy decision at Westminster to actually input into that. So, I think I'd put that in its context.

Darren Millar also talked about transport issues for young people. I agree completely with him in principle on that. Access to transport is the thing that affects the youngest and the oldest most in society, and we do need to address some of that. I won't talk about the UK Government's own youth card and the website crashing yesterday when they tried to do something about young people's transport. But we'll listen to the spirit rather than the detail of what the Conservatives suggest. 

I think what encapsulates the debate for me was the contribution of, and the key thing that Leanne Wood said, in one sense—that it surely should be a matter of public policy and public interest that we retain as many of our young people as we can. No young person should leave Wales if they don't want to. Yes, of course, if they want to study elsewhere, work elsewhere, if they want to be a yo-yo like Huw Irranca-Davies and come and go as the will takes them, that's fine. But we should surely—[Interruption.] And me. Yes, I know I'm part of it as well. We should surely have the ability to really think about public policies retaining our young people in their communities, giving them that choice, because at the moment many young people, as Leanne Wood talked about, in our coalfield communities, and in our rural, and particularly isolated rural communities—they have no choice. They cannot exercise that economic choice. They have no control over their future, in effect. And when you deprive—[Interruption.] In a second, if I may. When you deprive young people of the control over their future, then I think you take away from them that potential that I think Jack Sargeant spoke very clearly about, and I welcome his contribution as well, in putting young people and their potential central to this debate. I will give way to the Minister.

Thanks for giving way. I actually agree with the thrust of what you were saying there, that those young people are going to be the driving force of our communities but also our economy as well. But this gives me the opportunity just to highlight that, three years after graduating, the proportion of Welsh graduates working in Wales isn't 55 per cent, it is 70 per cent. We'd like it to be 80 or 90 per cent, but it's higher than was indicated.

I'm grateful. I don't think I used that figure—I think it came from the Conservatives—but you've put it on the record, in that regard.

Let me turn to some of the individual ideas that were put forward in the debate. Lee Waters, when he talked about the foundational economy, I agreed with him completely. And I think when Rhun talked about health and social care—that is an aspect of the foundational economy that we should be working with. It is one of the clearest ones that has been set out for that. To reflect a little bit about what the Minister has just said as well, any kind of arrangement by which three quarters of our young people studying medicine are leaving Wales when we have such a gap of at least 1,000 doctors and 5,000 nurses to have here in Wales—we need to address that. Any way that we look at the foundational economy needs to go with that.

I don't disagree with Lee Waters about precision agriculture. What I would say to him is that I hope that he soon will be in opposition, and I mean that in many senses of the word, when he will be in a position to negotiate with a Plaid Cymru Government and realise that when you are in opposition and you negotiate, you negotiate the money but the detail is down to Government. They're the operational specialists here. His remarks, I think, were more directed to the Cabinet Secretary. What I would say to him is: I know—and I've visited many farms in the hands of young people where that precision agriculture is taking place, or at least some ideas around it are taking place, working with higher education institutions, working with the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences—the best work there. He wants a strategic approach. I'd agree with him. But, as I said, it's for his own Government to bring some focus here. We bring the focus on the money, the Government brings the focus on the delivery. That's the way opposition and Government works.

Llyr was very clear around the realisation of the Diamond review, and though we support it and were part of the Diamond review, we now need to see the implementation of a key recommendation, which is how you attract young people back into Wales. He also mentioned the Llwybro project, which is one that I used to follow with great interest. It's unfortunately lapsed and we do need something like that to give us the intelligence so that we can work around building young people in our communities. It's something that Leanne Wood also referred to when she talked about the resilience of young people and their ability to build our communities as key parts of that. 

I think I am beaten by the clock. If I can just close with a classic example, really, of the dilemma we're facing, because the Minister mentioned a particular jeans company in west Wales, Hiut jeans—however they pronounce it—the old Howies, as were. I don't own a pair of their jeans, I can assure you. I'm not up there with Meghan Markle at all in that regard. But look what happened there. That company came about after the closure of a factory that manufactured jeans that employed 400 people in Cardigan. Nearly 20 years ago now, that factory closed, 400 people were put on the scrap heap. Some of them—some of them—got some artisan jobs, going into a new company called Howies and building up from that, and then into the Huit jeans and so forth. Wonderful. We want to see that entrepreneurship and we want to see it happening. But we also lost 400 jobs—a major part of the economy. That example encapsulates completely what's positive and great about entrepreneurship and young people, but what is also weak and foundationally underperforming in the Welsh economy. We have to get the two, and some of this debate has been praising the one and ignoring the other, and vice versa. The two have to work together if we're going to have vibrant communities here in Wales. 

The proposal is to agree the motion without amendment. Does any Member object? [Objection.] I will defer voting under this item until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.