I'm pleased to speak in this debate today. I'm going to focus my remarks on the lack of adequate support from the Welsh Government for the bus industry, both historically and during the COVID-19 pandemic. And I'm pleased, as Darren Millar has said, Deputy Presiding Officer, that as soon as this motion was tabled, the Welsh Government published its bus emergency scheme—always good when Welsh Conservatives have influence over Welsh Government policy.

I'll give some context and background to my contribution in terms of the lack of support for the bus industry. Bus passenger journeys in Wales have fallen since devolution while the volume of cars on our roads has increased. Simon Jeffrey of the think tank Centre for Cities has said, and this is a really, really good quote that sums this issue up so well:

'Poor transport puts people in cars, which slows buses down, pushing their cost up, making them less reliable and people move away from using them'.

And that was pretty much the conclusion of the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee when we reported on this issue some years ago—the need to break this cycle. The trend, Deputy Presiding Officer, can't continue. If we're going to face up to climate change, which the Welsh Government has itself declared, we need to tackle this issue.

And, of course, cuts to routes disproportionately affect older people, leading to increased loneliness and isolation. And, of course, with younger people, it prevents younger people travelling to and from educational centres. So, it stops them from accessing further education. That's a problem in rural Wales and semi-rural areas of Wales. All this, of course, is completely contrary to the Welsh Government's own strategy, 'Prosperity for All'. So, the Government has really got to move away from the rhetoric and start supporting this particular industry.

Turning to the pandemic, I welcome the £29 million, the industry welcomes the £29 million that the Government announced on 31 March, but let's be clear, that was not new money. Also, that money only lasted three months, and those three months have now passed. So, Wales is the only UK nation that has not provided additional funding for support for the industry. The Welsh Government desperately needs to increase funding and ensure that current bus operators receive the support they need to survive these unprecedented and financial pressures that they are under.

I can't speak in this debate without speaking about bus route 72 in my own constituency, which supports people in Llanfyllin and Llansanffraid to get to Oswestry, to do their shopping and for health appointments. That service was cancelled just a couple of weeks ago. These people that use the service do not have their own transport—an absolutely crucial service. The operator could not continue that service because it wasn't financially viable. So, I am working with Councillors Peter Lewis and Gwynfor Thomas and local community councils to find a solution, but it is incredibly difficult without Government support. The confederation of transport recently told the EIS committee it needs £5.2 million per month to get services to 100 per cent because of social distancing. Otherwise, bus services simply will not be sustainable.

Now, turning to the bus emergency scheme, I broadly welcome the Government's creation of this scheme, but, as Darren Millar has said and Helen Mary Jones has said, there is no financial detail with that scheme. Also, there's no detail about how the money can be and will be distributed. So, I've got a number of questions here for the Deputy Minister: how much funding will be allocated in the short term? Will it be proportional to the size of a business? Beyond this emergency period, what will new funding mechanisms and a partnership approach for the bus industry look like in the long term? What will this announcement mean for the bus Bill? Is this now to be shelved altogether? And is the Welsh Government now able to provide the clarity that the industry needs on the continued multiyear funding support for the bus services to operate while trading is still restricted? The lack of detail for long-term funding attached to the bus emergency scheme is a real concern. So, so many questions, Deputy Presiding Officer, and so far, at least, very few detailed answers from the Government.

As I come to conclude, what I think the Minister needs to do now—and this is to be positive and constructive—with some urgency, is to bring forward a taskforce to rethink, reshape and restart local bus services and how they operate in a post-pandemic Wales, led by the Welsh Government, with input from Transport for Wales, the industry and local authorities. I do hope that the Deputy Minister will consider that suggestion seriously, and I do hope that he'll be able to answer some of the questions that I've put in my contribution. Diolch.