Thank you, Deputy Llywydd. So, I rise to support amendment 1, tabled by Rebecca Evans AM. I have previously spent much time, as have many others, debating and discussing in this Chamber the many cruel and purposeful policies that have gone into the so-called austerity cuts to the welfare net. But today it would be refreshing, I think, for nationalist speakers on the Plaid Cymru benches to acknowledge the £1 billion of measures that the Welsh Labour Government has put in place to support low-income families and to tackle poverty. And the Plaid Cymru proposal to introduce a £35 a week payment for every child in low-income families in Wales is undoubtedly interesting and headline-grabbing, but the devil is always in the detail.

We know—let’s be frank—that the nationalists like to ape the Scottish nationalists, and so Plaid Cymru are either blissfully unaware or are just happy to gloss over that the Scottish Government are utilising—it's not been mentioned—new powers that have been devolved to the Scottish Parliament in relation to the administration of welfare. The powers that Scotland used to introduce the Scottish child payment have not, as has been stated, been devolved to Wales. So, if the Welsh Government were to look at introducing something similar in Wales, it would obviously need the UK Government to agree to the transfer of these powers, and, sadly, they seem much more intent on grabbing back Welsh powers. The devolution of the administrative control of the welfare benefits to the Assembly is indeed something that, as Plaid has again articulated today, want, but I think we do need to look at the evidence, and we do need to smell the coffee, given what happened when the Tory UK Government devolved council tax benefit, when they transferred those powers but cut the funding. Any move in this direction would need to be very carefully considered.

It’s not right, I think, that we fall into a trap of thinking that having administrative or executive control of social security would equally give us the opportunity to improve social and economic outcomes for the people in Wales. It is this learned experience that tells us that the Welsh Government would not receive adequate levels—