I want to thank the Wales committee, led by June Milligan, and the staff at the commission, for their work on these very important issues. I wanted to start by highlighting the inequality and discrimination faced by the Gypsy/Roma/Traveller young people in particular, some of which is highlighted in this report. Two weeks ago I attended Travelling Ahead's tenth national forum at Baskerville Hall in Hay with 50 young people from the Gypsy/Traveller/Roma community and many of the organisations working with those communities, and with Assembly Commission staff. The day was really an inspiring day—the young people were filled with enthusiasm and they were so glad to have the opportunity of putting forward their views about their place in society. I took part in a group that discussed the lack of awareness of Gypsy/Traveller culture, in particular by schoolteachers and other pupils in the schools. And one of the quite simple wishes of those children was that there could be a special assembly devoted to their culture. Many of the children did say, in fact, that they never said that they were a Gypsy—they hid their origins—because as soon as people knew they were a Gypsy, people's attitudes towards them changed immediately.

What did come over in the discussions was the huge importance of the Traveller education service, and many of the children said that they wouldn't be at school at all if it wasn't for the support of the service, and, as the report points out, only one in five Gypsy/Roma/Traveller children leave school with five GCSEs at A-C grade, which is a damning indictment, really, of the education service that we are providing for them. I know there has been a lot of concern about how the Traveller education service has been affected by the lack of ring fencing for the education improvement grant. I don't know whether the Cabinet Secretary, in his response, would be in a position to say how that service has been affected or whether he would need to refer it to the leader of the house when she comes back. But I do think it's very important that we do have actual evidence about how the Traveller education service is being affected.

Also, in 'Is Wales Fairer?' there is reference to the fact that Gypsy/Roma/Traveller families, along with transgender people and refugees and asylum seekers, continue to experience difficulties accessing quality health services, and I wanted the Cabinet Secretary also to look at that, because I know we did have a special inquiry into how we should provide services for the Traveller community, and I wanted to know what was the follow-up to that. 

It does seem that prejudice against Gypsies is the last acceptable prejudice. I've been approached by the Traveller community about the publicity following the funeral at Rover Way in Cardiff, which resulted in traffic jams in parts of the city. The comments that were put on Facebook following the WalesOnline article were absolutely shocking, saying things like, 'Auschwitz is empty at the moment' and other horrifying comments. How are people, human beings, supposed to feel if these comments go up publicly on the internet, on social media? How are they ever going to feel as part of society? I think this is a huge challenge for us all, and I think that, whenever we all speak, we must be aware of how people feel, how they respond to comments we make and anything that leads to those sort of comments.

But one of the very positive things that's happening at the moment is the setting up of the youth parliament, and it's really exciting, I think, that voting is now taking place. There are 480 candidates. I'm absolutely thrilled that, on the top-up list, there will be a place for a Gypsy/Roma/Traveller young person, and, on the day that I was at Baskerville Hall, the young people were voting for their choice. It just seemed to me that this was absolutely the right way that we should go as a society—to make an effort to include people who are not included naturally and where there is this awful prejudice. They were so excited. They had their manifestos. There were three young people who were competing against each other and it just felt such a positive thing that this was happening, and I felt very proud that the Assembly was doing this and that this opportunity would be offered, because there's an awful lot to fight against.