I was going to start by saying that this isn't a debate about a shopping list of investment items. But, of course, people obviously feel very strongly about various different fields. But, this debate is not a sort of extended letter to Santa Claus, as Alun Davies may have suggested at the outset.

This is an opportunity, of course, for us to consider that cultural shift from a situation where we’ve been distributing money and deciding how we spend money, to deciding how we’re going to generate funding and finance as well by raising taxes. That change will mean a change of mindset, as is happening in this evolutionary process that we are going through as a Senedd, but that also needs to be reflected constitutionally, perhaps in the way in which we introduce and present the fiscal process in a broader sense. And, of course, the committee has been looking at the legislative process around the budget, and that will be the subject of a report that will be published soon, and will obviously be the subject of discussions and debates in the autumn.

Sustainability. In Welsh, there are three Cs that have emanated from this debate. It might not work in translation. However, sustainability has certainly come through in almost all of these contributions; social justice has been prominent; and equality. I think that that message is a silver thread that must run through all the Government's considerations when it comes to preparing its budget, particularly in the context of the well-being of future generations Act and that change in interpretation, in the discourse around what truly represents value for money when we're looking at the way in which this Government spends its budget.

Mike Hedges is quite right in saying that COVID has changed everything. We know that. And as he said, last year’s budget is certainly not going to work this year. I acknowledge that investment in education, of course, is one of the most powerful tools that we have in addressing the economic recovery that we will need to stimulate after all that has happened.

It’s right to say that this pandemic has shown us what is possible when the political will exists to accomplish things, in the context of homelessness certainly. Who would have thought, if politicians had decided that we were going to address homelessness in the way in which it has been done over the past months, we would of course have arrived at where we are much sooner.

He ventured to get his crystal ball out and said that health would see the greatest increase in its budget, and perhaps the lowest level of scrutiny. Well, we shall see, we shall see, because perhaps that’s what’s happened in the past.

Rhun was right in reminding us of the role of local government and the need for a budgetary process that looks at well-being, which should be central to our considerations. And it then follows that we should consider some of the fields that Lynne Neagle referred to from the point of view of mental health and what’s happened to the mental health transformation fund. Certainly, this pandemic has intensified the need for support for mental health issues, never mind the economic downturn that will follow and make a difficult situation worse.

The level of the challenges that this pandemic has highlighted, the economic recession that will follow, and we’ve heard many times today about the challenges that will follow our departure from the European Union at the same time—all of these together mean that we need an extremely ambitious response from Welsh Government when it comes to setting its budget for next year. Every penny has to work as hard as possible.

I share Rhianon Passmore’s frustration when she alluded to how slowly the details regarding the shared prosperity fund have been coming out, which is of course a theme for us as a committee, and others have raised it here over the last couple of years. Because we know that the more assurance that we have on what the budget is, how much it is and what its intended purpose is, and the earlier that we get that information, then it stands to reason that the impact and influence of that budget will be much more effective.

The Minister was right to say that we live in extreme times and it’s quite exceptional in my view that the Secretary of State of Wales claims that an additional £500 million has come to Wales and that the Minister for finance in Wales is saying that, truth be told, it’s only £12.5 million of consequential revenue. The Secretary of State for Wales appeared before the committee earlier this week and we raised the point with him: 'Well, what does that tell us if you get two such contrasting interpretations? What does that tell us about the system that we have at present?'

And as Mike Hedges reminded us in the committee, the challenge is, 'Show us your workings', and not just to ask that of the Secretary of State, but to ask that of both Ministers. That is, we must move from there to a position where there is much greater transparency for the people of Wales as regards the impact of the consequential investments that come from London to Cardiff, and that is something that we all must work harder on.

However, whatever the level of the budget, there are difficult and hard decisions ahead for the Government in the ensuing year, and I hope that this debate has helped the Minister and the Government to weigh up those priorities whilst of course they prepare the draft budget.