I thank the Cabinet Secretary for his statement today and for updating the Assembly, but, despite the flurry of apparent activity over the summer in relation to our separation from the EU, we are no closer to answers to fundamental questions—questions so fundamental that they range from the future of an international peace treaty to food security. What is becoming very clear, however, is that we are being held hostage by a bunch of ideological separatists in Westminster. 

In terms of the specifics of his statement today, can the Cabinet Secretary clarify a few points—specifically the points he has made about the customs union or a customs union? He has stated in his statement that we should stay in—. Well, I believe he is saying that we should stay in the customs union. The text I have in front of me says that we should stay in a customs union. Is he able to clarify whether he wants to stay in the customs union or whether he wants to negotiate a new customs union?

That is linked to my second question, which is on the point he raises on the need for a UK general election in the event of the Prime Minister failing to get a deal on separation through the Westminster Parliament. Presumably, the Cabinet Secretary would want the outcome of that general election to be a majority Labour Government, but, if that is the outcome, then we will definitely be leaving the customs union and we will definitely be leaving the single market. So, I wonder if he can clarify why it is tactically in the interests of the people of Wales, and even the Welsh Government, for there to be a majority Labour Government taking us out of the customs union and the single market. How can he reconcile those apparently contradictory positions?

The other point I'd like to raise is the question—and I think this is something that is coming to a head; it will, certainly, in the coming weeks—of the border in Ireland. Given the impossibility—. Regardless of the utterances of the spokesperson for the Conservative group today, given the impossibility of having an open border on the island of Ireland as there is now if one part of Ireland is outside the customs union, is it not more likely that we will see therefore a hard border in the Irish sea, in which case, what mitigating steps—? Well, I say 'mitigating'; there are no mitigating steps there. What steps is the Welsh Government taking to avoid that outcome, that Northern Ireland—? The fallback position is that Northern Ireland will remain in the single market and customs union in order to maintain the Belfast agreement, and that means a hard border in the Irish sea, which would be a disaster for communities in Wales.

The other questions I'd like to ask relate to contingency planning on behalf of Welsh Government. I of course welcome the Brexit business portal—of course a Plaid Cymru policy and suggestion made quite soon after the referendum. Indeed, it's a great regret that the Brexit business portal couldn't have been introduced sooner, but I wonder—. I know he is going to formally announce and launch this soon, but can he tell us when he will be launching the Brexit business portal and how businesses will be able to engage in it? I think we would find it also very useful as Members of this Assembly if the Cabinet Secretary were in a position to publish, maybe in the Assembly Library, a comprehensive list of contingency plans that the Welsh Government is undertaking. He said in his statement that they have been enhanced during the summer period. I think a list, perhaps along the lines of the format of the UK Government publishing its papers in the event of a 'no deal'. We could have a similar system in Wales, where Welsh Government is publishing more detailed information on contingency planning, not just for no deal, but for a possible deal as well.

One aspect that I think is missing from the statement today is the question of contingency planning in the Welsh NHS. I have raised this on a couple of occasions because, of course, this is a very complicated situation, because we have drug control that is, of course, not devolved, but, of course, you can't run a national health service that is devolved without drugs and without treatments. I declare an interest as somebody who's currently benefiting from treatment on the national health service. And the treatment that I personally received through chemotherapy—I understand that those drugs at the moment come via Munich, are distributed across the European Union via Munich, and are sourced from around the world. Now, that's a very—. And this is something I would urge people to think seriously about. When people are flirting with the idea of no deal, a 'no deal' Brexit, that means no deal on cancer drugs that people in this country rely upon. This is not playing political games or political football—that's a serious issue. If we don't have a deal on the future of cancer drugs that make up the composition of chemotherapy, cancer patients in this country are going to suffer, and that is not something I think anybody in this Chamber wants. So, can I ask the Welsh Government what discussions are ongoing with the UK Government, who hold control over drug control, with Welsh Government, who are, of course, responsible for the Welsh NHS and for future drugs and treatments?

Finally, it would be amiss for a Plaid Cymru spokesperson not to raise constitutional matters, particularly when we have an opportunity to do so on the issue of separation from the European Union. I note, in his references to meetings of the JMC and the ministerial forum, that it continues to be the case—and we saw it yesterday in evidence given by the First Minister to the External Affairs and Additional Legislation Committee—I think, that Wales is treated as little more than a consultee rather than as a partner nation in the so-called United Kingdom. We have seen in this whole process that the United Kingdom is constitutionally flawed. Some of us believe that it's been constitutionally flawed since 1707, but this process has certainly underlined that. With developments in other parts of the UK—the prospect of a united Ireland, the prospect of a second referendum on independence in Scotland—what contingency planning is the Welsh Government undertaking at the moment for the very real, I suggest, possibility of there not being a United Kingdom at all at the end of this process?