Minister, thank you for your statement this afternoon. Obviously, as a committee, the environment committee, we've looked at this in great detail and I thank you and your officials who've come before us as well. So, I'm grateful to see the conclusion of the work brought forward in the plan and in particular the statement outlining the Government's aspirations for this plan. 

It's a 20-year plan, as it states. One thing is sure, all plans tend to get revised. So, the opening gambit, the opening question is: how durable do you think this plan actually is? We've seen it on many schemes that Welsh Government have brought forward with the best of intentions and with industry and sector-wide support. The woodland scheme is most probably the most obvious one in the field of environmental improvements and protections, where 100,000 hectares was the goal, and precious little progress has been made in that particular area. What confidence can we have that in four, five, six years' time this particular plan will not be subject to a massive revision, because maybe some of the goals you've set or some of the objectives you've put into this plan just aren't attainable, or the capacity isn't there, in particular from NRW, because we know, sadly, that in certain areas their ability to regulate and deliver has been found wanting since its inception? How confident are you that NRW have been at the forefront of delivering this plan with you, so that you haven't put too stretching a goal into it, and actually the structures that are out there to help deliver it just can't work with the Government aspiration in this particular area?

The economic use of the seas is of critical importance, because we're a coastal community. If you look at the population of Wales, predominantly around the coast is where the population exists. And that can be defined into three areas that this plan talks of: tourism, fishing and energy. We know, when it comes to tidal energy, there is huge potential, but much of the technology is very much still in its infancy. How will this plan enable the expansion of tidal power and tidal capture to obviously increase this particular area, because I think that's a very important area to focus on? But tourism as well, because many towns and cities—. Let's not forget that Cardiff is a coastal city. It can be measured very profitably as a city—it's a vibrant city Cardiff is—but then when you go further away from Cardiff, you find many coastal areas struggling and they rely on the tourism sector, which you touched on in your statement, and yet we know that between 2017 and 2018 there was a 12 per cent decline in tourism numbers here in Wales, as opposed to obviously Scotland, which saw a 29 per cent increase in tourism numbers. So, we have a great asset around the shores of this great country of ours. How will this plan enable other departments to use it as an economic promotional tool, so that those communities that do feel they have been left behind can benefit from the expansion of tourism? 

I'd also like to understand how the economic department more generally has been involved in the development of the plan. You touch on shipping and ports in particular. We have huge opportunities to expand those particular areas and especially with so much responsibility now, when we leave the European Union, coming back into the Assembly or to a UK level. What level of engagement has been undertaken with the UK Government in developing this plan, because tides ebb and flow? They don't respect borders or boundaries, they don't, and what maybe is going on in England shouldn't necessarily be adopted here in Wales. That's entirely up to the Government to determine whether it wants to, but there does need to be a collaborative approach to managing our seas, and it would be good to understand exactly the level of engagement, and in particular the development of the plan as it's developed forward that you've worked on with the DEFRA department in London.

I do note, obviously, the extensive referral to fossil fuels. I think it occupies five/six paragraphs in the whole statement, it does. That's a Government position, and I would most probably disagree with it to a point, but I understand why the Government are making that view known.

I understand from one paragraph that it would seem, if you read between the lines, that you would be using the planning system, because you talk about areas that are within your control on the land to develop your policy, even though the fossil fuel extraction could be going on at sea. Could you be more explicit as to what type of measures you might be looking to exercise? As I said, is it as simple as you would be using the planning system and you'd be giving direction to the Planning Inspectorate and to local authorities to refuse such planning applications? Because I think that's important, that people understand the signals that are coming from Government and the use of the planning system to obviously carry out Government policy.

But, on the whole, it is vital that we do maintain a balance between what we look at as an economic asset and an environmental asset, and the conservation levers that we have around our magnificent coastline here in Wales are something that do need protecting and do need enhancing. I look forward to this plan being exercised by the Government with the new powers that will be coming back from the European Union. For the first time for many decades now, you will have direct say over many areas that, historically, have been made from outside this building.