May I thank the Finance Committee’s clerking team and the Chair, Llyr Gruffydd, for their work in drawing this report together? This is an area that is new to us as a committee, of course, as well as being new to us as a Senedd and as a nation. We have been learning and developing our own expertise, as we have dealt with these taxation issues and in preparing to implement fiscal devolution in Wales. So, I have just a few comments in recommending the conclusions and recommendations made in this report, and I look forward to seeing our latest taxation powers coming into force in just a few days’ time. Of course, we are having this debate on the report earlier than normal because of that particular timetable, and I’m grateful to my fellow Members of the Assembly’s Business Committee for allowing this debate to be staged today.

I will deal with the two conclusions of the report in the wrong order, if you like. Conclusion 2—the fact the committee recognises the work undertaken in establishing the Welsh Revenue Authority anew, and they, of course, are dealing with the implementation of the land transaction tax and the landfill disposals tax, which are 12 months old now. As we heard from the Chair, the team is exceptionally professional and exceptionally exciting at the WRA and they made quite an impression on us when we visited. Of course, in looking at recommendation 1, which deals with workforce planning, I think in setting the bar so high in terms of what’s been done within the WRA in that first year, the challenge will be to maintain that standard. It became clear to us as a committee that the professionalism and experience of the workforce and the individuals driving that workforce was crucially important, and we will look forward to annual updates as to how that standard is being maintained.

In returning, then, to conclusion 1, I would like to echo what’s said there, namely that the committee is deeply disappointed in the Secretary of State’s lack of engagement on the constitutional impact of fiscal devolution in Wales. I tend to feel that the attitude of the Secretary of State towards us as an institution is disgraceful. There’s a copy here of the letter sent by the Secretary of State to the Chair of the Finance Committee, where he mentions being accountable to Parliament in Westminster and not to the National Assembly. Well, the National Assembly for Wales is a democratically elected body representing the interests of the people of Wales. If this Assembly and its committee see fit to hold anyone to account, it is our responsibility to do that, and it’s not for Alun Cairns or any other Minister of the state to set himself above accountability to the people of Wales. I can't make that point any stronger.

He is willing, apparently, to speak to individuals as Assembly Members about this issue. He is willing to provide evidence to the Welsh Affairs Select Committee in Westminster on the issue. So, he’s willing to engage with the issue and to answer questions, but the only conclusion that I can draw is that he is insulting in his attitude towards this organisation. I'm surprised to see him try to place walls between the Welsh taxation regime and the taxation regime that is still being run centrally at a UK level. There is interaction between processes in Wales and processes in Westminster, and it is entirely crucial that we can ask questions of Wales’s representative in Westminster and that he hears directly from us, as a democratically elected body here in Wales, exactly what our concerns are and the kind of assurances that we're seeking on a range of issues relating to taxation powers.

Moving on very briefly, I'm very concerned about the lack of understanding that people have of Welsh rates of income tax as they're being introduced this weekend. There are questions to be asked as to how we can raise awareness as we move forward.

I will say in conclusion, to respond to comments by Mike Hedges as to what is likely to happen to Welsh rates of income tax, and how difficult it could be politically to make a decision to increase or reduce taxes, there is value in simply having that devolution, because it puts pressure on government to work with more focus. But I do look forward in years to come to see us developing a Welsh approach to dealing with taxation. There will be further taxation powers devolved, and things will be doable in terms of income tax rates through making changes to other taxes. But those are issues for the future. We're at the beginning of the journey and I am pleased to receive applause from someone's telephone at the back here, but I'm also pleased to recommend this report to the Assembly.