May I thank the Minister for this statement? I think it is important that we now have a marine plan for Wales, although, as one who has been pushing for some time for some kind of Welsh plan that corresponded to the 'Harnessing our Ocean Wealth' Irish plan, which has been published for some years now, I do note, of course, that Welsh Government had to produce this plan, and that was as a result of Westminster legislation. But, of course, it’s a good thing that there is some kind of an outline of this Government’s intention as regards the seas.

I will refer to something I’ve alluded to many times in the Assembly, namely the continuous need to get a better understanding of the seas around us, and the role that the oceanography department in Bangor University, in my constituency, has in that work of understanding how to map the seas. I’m pleased that there was an affirmative response to the debate to the debate that I tabled some time ago, about the need for the Government to come to an agreement on the use of the Prince Madog as a research vessel. I’m very pleased about the way in which the Minister responded to that concern that was expressed to her by myself that possibly there was an uncertain future facing that vessel, and I’m looking forward to seeing a strengthening of the agreements as regards the use of the Prince Madog.

But, if I could talk specifically about the plans in relation to marine energy, of course, there are exciting schemes around the coastline of Anglesey as regards tidal energy—the Morlais scheme, the Minesto scheme. And also there are schemes that have been mentioned for many years and are now coming back on to the agenda to produce more wind energy. But I have to say that I am concerned about the lack of collaboration, so it appears, between what needs to happen and what could happen in the seas and what needs to happen, and what doesn’t need to happen too in some areas, on land.

We have had an outline through the draft plan, the national framework plan, as regards the intention of the Government on terrestrial wind energy. It’s a great concern to me to see these 15 areas, corresponding to 20 per cent of the surface of Wales, being identified as priority areas for the production of solar and wind energy. The idea of having such a huge area of Ynys Môn identified as an area ready for turbines of 250 ft high, which is higher than any land on Ynys Môn, makes me feel that not enough thought has gone into this, and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales says that what we have in the NDF is not fit for purpose.

But another thing that struck me with the NDF, of course, is that there’s no reference to what could be done in the sea. You can’t plan for the future of marine energy without thinking of the land, and vice versa. So, I’d like to hear from the Minister about what intention she has to assimilate both elements, and why the Government decided to split their plans for the future of our renewable energy into land and sea, when, surely, we should be thinking in just one unified way.

There are plans—if you tally them up, it corresponds to about 10 times the energy needs of Wales, if you tally them up between both plans. I like being ambitious and planning for the production of more electricity than we need, and we could, of course, export it. But something makes me think that the Government has failed to think about the kind of scale that we might need for energy production. And I would like an explanation of why there aren’t any real targets as regards how much energy needs to be produced from the sea and how much we can actually achieve from the sea so that we don’t have to then push for the more unpopular schemes that create more of an impact on the environment and so on on the land.

And, finally, I don’t think you answered Llyr’s question on the resources that the Government is willing to invest, in financial terms and in human resources, in order to be able to succeed in delivering these plans.