Providing state-subsidised childcare in appropriate circumstances may be a good idea in principle, provided it's targeted in the correct way. It may support parents in employment and may go some way to helping many working parents into work, especially women. But it remains to be seen how this particular childcare scheme will work and how successful it'll be. 

I think what the people of Wales really need to understand is that the Welsh Government is effectively buying votes with taxpayers' money on this one. It exposes the foolishness of giving the Labour Party spending powers without them being forced to accept the accountability that comes with having to raise the taxes to pay for their plans. It's like giving a child the keys to the local sweetie shop in the knowledge that the child will make itself sick.

When it comes to the childcare offer itself, where are your priorities? There are parents who need the help that state-subsidised childcare gives, such as the unemployed. These parents are absent from this Bill. There's no help for parents needing childcare to cover training to help them back into work either. That's a glaring omission and one that the Minister has repeatedly refused to address. In rejecting recommendations 7 and 8, the Minister says that there are other schemes to give support, and I'm sure that's true, but the fact that the committee has called for such parents to be included in the childcare provision is an indication that those schemes aren't addressing the specific problem. But for the sake of so-called universality, parents in the 40 per cent tax bracket and substantially wealthier than that will receive free childcare. Is this really about universality though? Welsh Labour have no problems in other areas discriminating against those they regard as rich, so is it really because Welsh Labour don't have the imagination to differentiate between parents who need help and those who don't? The Minister has missed an opportunity to rationalise and streamline the schemes he has in place to help parents trying to get back into work.

Another serious omission in the Bill is the failure to include schools. Why? I just don't understand it. Children spend a major part of their lives in school, and it makes no sense whatsoever to prevent schools from providing childcare. Indeed, it's entirely logical that they should. So, perhaps the Minister in his response to this debate will explain the reason for this without referring to a technical difficulty that could have been addressed in the Bill. The Minister seemed to have an odd response as well to recommendation 17 of the CYPE committee's report into the Bill. The committee recommended that the Minister conduct a children's rights impact assessment that covers all children, not just those eligible under the childcare scheme. the Minister has accepted this recommendation in principle, but what exactly do you mean by that, Minister? Because there's no sign in your response to recommendation 17 that any future impact assessment will consider the impact on all children and not just those eligible under the Bill. Surely, you understand that the children's commissioner is very, very concerned that the way this childcare offer is being targeted is going to disadvantage those very children who need the help most. Please, please, please explain. If you're going to consider the impact on all children anyway, why not say that in your response? 

Turning to the actual form of the Bill, I would describe this as an enabling Bill on steroids. Rather than setting restrictions and limitations on the powers and setting the parameters of the childcare offer—rather than setting out the parameters and setting out some detail and some guidance about what Welsh Government are being authorised to do here, so that the scheme can be judged in this place on its merits, they've produced a Bill that allows them to make it up as they go along. It gives Welsh Labour carte blanche to introduce whatever scheme they choose with minimal scrutiny from the Assembly. Consequently, we'll be voting against this Bill because it's too wide, it gives the Welsh Government a carte blanche to do whatever they like and to make it up as they go along, and it's badly targeted. So, we will be voting against it. Thank you.