Diolch. Child poverty is a scourge on our country. I'm not going to sugar-coat it for anyone here today, nor am I going to seek to mislead anyone surrounding its cause or effects. It gives me no joy, in fact, to open this debate today, discussing the same scandal of poverty that exists in Wales, which has only worsened in the last decade. Put simply, a child's in poverty when their household is earning less than 60 per cent of median earnings. So, in fact, child poverty is the poverty of adults with dependent children. It is not just a social problem but a deep and structural economic one that many communities in Wales have found themselves in for decades. We know many of the statistics, and I don't wish to repeat them all here today, as my colleagues will also outline those in more detail, but the top-line figures indicate very clearly the urgency of the situation facing Wales's next generation.

Of the 600,000 children in Wales, one in three—200,000—are living in poverty; 90,000 are living in severe poverty. Over half of children in low-income families worry about how their parents are going to pay for basic necessities. No child should have to face that kind of stress. And, unfortunately, the situation is not getting better, with the Institute for Fiscal Studies warning that, by 2021, child poverty will increase by 7 percentage points, four of which are directly linked to welfare cuts and changes.

We know too well the effects of child poverty in Wales. We know that a child who grows up in a poor household is far less likely than peers in higher or middle-income households to reach the same level of educational attainment. We know that a child in poverty is more likely to develop mental health issues, along with wider health problems. The biggest effect of child poverty, though, is the long-term consequences for the future of our nation.