I've got the message, Chair; I will be succinct. Thank you, and I'm pleased to contribute to this debate and, indeed, to follow the Minister emeritus—it's always good to listen to what Alun Davies has to say. It did amuse me slightly when you said, Alun, that you hoped you'd have more luck with Rebecca than her predecessor, because her predecessor was, of course, the First Minister, so I imagine that you need to speak to him as well about making sure that some of those issues on sustainability really do factor in the future. 

Having this debate in advance of the Welsh Government's draft budget-setting process is certainly a different way of doing things; I can't remember when we've had this sort of debate, this sort of discussion before. And looking at the agenda, 2021-22 does in many ways seem a fair way off, but this Senedd can have some input into that process now, and I think it's a good move that we do seek to have some sort of input into that. 

On the issue that Alun Davies raised about moving to a legislative budget process, this is something that I was open-minded about for a long length of time, but I must admit that as time has gone by the persuasiveness of the argument for a proper finance Bill to vary taxes, and so on, has actually dawned on me as a good way to proceed. As Alun said, this is something that the Finance Committee is looking at now in detail, and it's something that I think that we should do more work on and something that we should recommend as a good way of doing business in the future, particularly as the tax powers of the Assembly bed in and expand. 

Of course, the difficulty with having this debate at this time, although we do try to have debates as normal as possible, is the backdrop of the pandemic and the nature of the ongoing situation. In terms of the next budget-setting process for the Welsh Government, much is going to depend on what happens over the rest of this year, over the autumn and, indeed, moving through the next years with regard to the pandemic and whether there's a second peak. 

And of course, aside from that, we do want to build back better, an expression that I used earlier in questions, and I think it's a good one. I think it does explain quite lucidly how we as a Senedd, and how the Welsh Government, should be looking to rebuild the economy. It's not just a question, as was just said, about going back to the old normality. We want to come out of this pandemic building for the future in a more sustainable way than we did in the past, and taking the opportunities that have been presented and not just reacting to some of the challenges, which the Welsh Government has had to.

So, the Welsh Government budget should be showing clearly commitments to that process of rebuilding in a sustainable way. The future generations legislation requires that sustainability is at the heart of all aspects of Government workings, including the budget, but too often it isn't. The climate emergency has made this imperative; we often talk about the climate change emergency, but too often it isn't actually an emergency that gets the sort of attention and focus that it should. So yes, these should all be at the heart of the budget-setting process, not just an add-on at the end, but they should feature at the start and throughout. And if the Welsh Government, for whatever good reason, needs to deviate, or feels it needs to deviate from some of those principles, then okay, but we as a Senedd need to be told and it needs to be transparent why that is the case. The next draft budget process has to green the economy as we grow out of the pandemic.

I think broadband—I mentioned this earlier; it's going to be my main point today—is absolutely crucial. Yes, we can improve the road network, yes, we can improve the rail network, and these are all things that we should be doing. But if we actually get the broadband and the digital infrastructure right at the start, then we won't need to be creating that same level of capacity and maintaining that same level of capacity that we have in the past. There are still far too many areas of rural Wales that do not have adequate broadband provision. There have been mistakes made in the past in dealing with some of those contracts, and that needs to be put right. I hope that the 2021-22 budget does feature a real determination, at every level and across departments, to get the broadband infrastructure of this country right, to fill the notspots, and to try to get up to 100 per cent coverage as much as possible, but also reliable coverage.

I will say, just to bring it to a conclusion, Chair, that in terms of some things the Welsh Conservatives would like to see, well, we've long been arguing for the repurposing of spending to create a COVID economy recovery fund. We'd like to see a £250 million fund that could be used to help towns and communities across Wales. There's also a strong argument, I still say, for scrapping business rates for businesses up to a rateable value of £15,000, to kick-start the economy and to support businesses at this time and to allow them money to invest in their workforce and in the future. We've also said that we would create business-rate-free zones, with a business rate holiday for up to three years for businesses that qualify to go into those areas. Those are just a few areas that we think could go into the next budget.

But aside from the actual content of that budget, I think that this is a very good way to proceed. I hope that, in future, we do have more discussions at the very outset of the Senedd budget-setting process, to make sure that the Welsh Government is well aware of the views of this Senedd at the earliest opportunity of forming its budgets.