Firstly, can I just say to Dai Lloyd, if we hadn't had reorganisation and the merger of district and country councils, we wouldn't have had the Assembly? That made a huge difference, because it would have added another layer of government, and, if you look at how close the election result was, it wouldn't have happened. 

I want to talk about local government—I always want to talk about local government. I believe local government is very important. It provides services to people across Wales, and the services it provides are normally of a very high standard and always appreciated by the residents. And, when things go wrong, they don't half tell us as Assembly Members, and they tell the local councillors. 

But I think it's very important that I welcome the statement and it gives an opportunity for us to reset our relationship with local government, to explore and recognise the significant positive collaboration and work local authorities already do. That might come as a surprise to local government, because they've not been used to people saying nice things about them in this Chamber from the front bench for several years. And I think it really is important that we do appreciate the work done by local authorities. 

Can I just say about shared services, which I think are an excellent idea—and I belonged to one that existed in the past, the south west Wales integrated transport consortium? But I think it's important that they actually take place in understandable areas, so each city region has all the services taking part not necessarily across the city region, but within the city region, and those in mid and west Wales take part in mid and west Wales. The great weakness in Swansea is that they don't know who's going to turn up for the next meeting, because sometimes it was Ceredigion, sometimes it was Ceredigion and Powys, sometimes they are with Bridgend. It does create difficulty in collaborative working when you're collaborating with different people depending on what service you're talking about. So, if everything can be done in one footprint—and I've argued this several times before so I'll keep on arguing it—then people get used to it and the relationships build up and people get used to dealing with it in that manner.

I think statutory joint committees are an excellent idea. I think of economic development, and the development of Swansea University in Neath Port Talbot council area has probably had more of an effect on Swansea, on Swansea East in particular, than it has on Neath Port Talbot. I remember the old Lliw Valley Borough Council setting up Clydach market, which was actually in Lliw Valley but the houses opposite were in Swansea and the people who were most affected where the people in Swansea. So, I think it is important that we get some collaboration because some of the out-of-town shopping areas—. I mean, Trostre effects Swansea and Fforestfach affects Llanelli. This is the inevitability with places that are so close together with good road links.

The only other question I've got is: how will it differ, if at all, from the joint committee in Northern Ireland, which was made up of the participant councils and constituted as a body corporate?