Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I want to begin by thanking all Members for their contributions to this debate. One thing that I know for certain is that many people who work in the sector are very worried and feel under a lot of pressure at the moment, and they will have been hugely reassured to hear the support and the strength of feeling about the importance of the arts from across the Chamber today.

Time doesn't allow me to respond to everyone, but I do want to make a few responses. I'd like to thank David Melding for his kind words about my chairing. There could not have been a worse time, in some ways, to start chairing a committee, but I certainly had amazing support from the staff and from my fellow Members. I think David's point about the importance of retaining the muscle memory of the sector was something that came out very clearly from our evidence. If we lose the sector as we have it now, it will take decades to rebuild it, if it's ever possible to rebuild it at all, and it's important to remember, of course, that the arts workforce is international, it's very flexible, and if we can't retain people here, much of our best talent may choose to go elsewhere.

Rhianon's passion, particularly for music, is always inspiring. I fully agree with all she says about the seriousness of the situation, and I also agree that we will need investment both from the UK and from the Welsh Government to ensure that our arts sector survives as it goes forward.

Siân Gwenllian's points about the need to reassess I thought were very well made, and that's why the committee has asked for a new national plan, a new way forward, developed with the sector, and I support what Huw Irranca-Davies says both about involving the sector in the immediate response and how we build back better, but also in looking forward to what our arts and culture may mean to us. Of course, the significance, as Siân says, of the arts in helping us to understand what we've all been through and helping us to recover as individuals, as communities and as a nation is something that we must not lose sight of. We as a committee would strongly support the call for Welsh Government to act and invest, and the point she also made about the importance of this being not just the big national institutions, but also those local community groups that many Members have referred to that bring us into touch with our arts in everyday life.

Can I thank the Deputy Minister very much for his overall positive response? He's right that the arts are at the heart of our lives, even in the heart of this dreadful crisis. I must apologise for our use of the word 'lobbying'; I take full responsibility for that. We do not expect our Ministers to lobby Westminster Government, we expect them to have discussions with them. I take full responsibility for the wrong word, but I'm sure that he knows what we mean. And I'm sure that he also appreciates the urgency of those discussions, and the urgency of the sector knowing something about what's going to happen, because the truth is that as August comes around and businesses and organisations are expected to contribute towards the cost of furlough, organisations with no income will not be able to do this, and our arts sector is therefore is on a financial knife edge and I'm sure he knows that. 

I respect the Minister's position that he doesn't feel the need to set up a separate group. He would, of course, expect me to say that we will scrutinise his work as he moves forward and his co-operation with the sector, and I know that he will welcome our doing so.

Dirprwy Lywydd, I want to bring my comments to an end by just saying again how much I know the sector will have valued the very positive, optimistic and I think committed tone of this debate. We look forward to the Government's formal response to us in due course, and I'm very grateful to the Minister that he's made some initial indications, but we wouldn't have expected a full response today. And I did just want to comment on what he said about the importance of live performance—that this is something that people participate in as well as simply watching, and it's very difficult to get that from a screen. And I'm also very grateful to him for accepting the points that we've made about the need to look again at diversity, and to ensure that our black and minority ethnic citizens are appropriately reflected at the heart of our cultural life.

So, with those few remarks, Dirprwy Lywydd, I would like to commend this report and this motion to the Senedd, and look forward to working with the sector to ensure that our cultural life is strengthened after this horrible crisis.