Thank you, Deputy Llywydd. I read with both alarm and agreement that the committee has considerable concerns about what it sees as one of the defining longer term challenges of this deadly pandemic: a likely dramatic spike in youth unemployment, a spike that, without action by Welsh Government, threatens to scar and stunt the employment prospects of a generation of young people and frustrate the national recovery.

Sadly, this is not new to us. As the Member for Islwyn, I know that the spectre of mass youth unemployment will ascend—[Inaudible.]—throughout the communities that I represent. I was politicised as a teenager by the devastation that was brought to us by the callous Tory economic policies of the Thatcher Government. I was sent to this Senedd by the people of Islwyn, following the ongoing devastation brought to the Islwyn valleys by the continuation of Thatcherite policies under the smokescreen of austerity, and the cruel and callous disinvestment ideology of the anti-public sector Cameron Government, well criticised by the United Nations.

So, today, Islwyn faces a future potentiality of further economic hardship from the callous C-19 pandemic and the trade drop-off of EU exit. As such, it is imperative that the UK Government does not slash and burn public services and its funding in dealing with the deficit post C-19.

Deputy Llywydd, I support the committee's third recommendation, namely that the

'Welsh Government must take action to ensure high quality structured work experience opportunities, especially for people from deprived backgrounds, are part of Wales’ recovery plan.'

As Professor Ewart Keep from the department of education at Oxford warned the committee, the 'huge looming issue' of youth unemployment as tens of thousands of college and university students graduate this summer is stark. These young people face a labour market that has seen a collapse in demand, with a third of Wales's workforce furloughed or taking advantage of the Government's self-employment assistance scheme.

Deputy Llywydd, while on some key matters there may be consensus in the Senedd, there remains a critical and fundamental need for an effective inter-governmental systemic mechanism for the devolved nations. This missing infrastructure has never been more needed. Without effective working between the UK Government and the Welsh Government, and the UK then investing to meet the real needs of the people of Wales, we will once again return to a forgotten generation of young women and men. It is right that the Welsh Government is firmly requesting of the UK Treasury that the needs of Wales are met, both now during this pandemic, but also with mechanisms for the future, sustainable for future pandemics, crises and times of national challenge. And in parallel to the multiplicity of current Welsh Government interventions and Wales-only support packages during COVID, it is clear that Wales's First Minister and Minister for economy have a clear direction, drive and determination to both safeguard and protect the health and economic needs of our people to ensure that Wales is a place where nobody is left behind, and when the storm of COVID leaves us, a brighter, healthier and greener Wales is rebuilt, revealed and rediscovered. Diolch.