I'd like to thank our committee Chair, Members and the clerking team for the work that they've put into this inquiry and this report. We should all be angry about how COVID-19 has affected some people in our society more than others. That anger shouldn't fade. We should use the anger to compel us to make sure we change the way our society functions, because COVID-19 has not been a leveller. People in the poorest communities have not only experienced higher mortality, as we've heard, but they've also been more likely to lose income, have employment reduced and faced periods of restrictions and lockdown in a smaller space. Housing has been recognised not just as a functionality, but a provider of security and solace, and people without that security and solace have been exposed to an unnecessary and unconscionable risk.

The lockdown and now the restrictions are also having a disproportionate impact on people in the poorest communities. As our report makes clear, children with the lowest educational attainment before the pandemic will have fallen further behind their peers. Disabled people are more likely to face difficulties because of the challenges to the environment caused by social distancing. And, of course, those with caring responsibilities being more likely than not women—though not always—are more likely to face difficulties in employment, as facilities like childcare, education and routine social care become less available.

Now, I'm not arguing that we shouldn't have restrictions, but we should be more targeted on keeping the virus out of our communities altogether, and we should have mitigation plans for dealing with the effect of the restrictions. But poverty is not the only inequality we should consider. Seventeen and 18-year-olds went through the A-level debacle and are now either in university in very difficult circumstances or facing levels of unemployment not seen since the 1980s. Young people and children have missed out on seeing friends and socialising, which is important for development, but also mental health and joy. The importance of joy in all our lives should not be discounted. We must find ways of giving young people hope again. 

Llywydd dros dro, another group that's faced unprecedented strain and worry these past few months has been older people. It was noted yesterday that the Government's report looking at recovery after COVID-19 does not make much mention of older people, which is an oversight that must be corrected. Because older people, residents of care homes especially, have been marginalised; they've been made to feel like their lives don't matter as much. More than 1,000 residents of care homes were discharged from hospitals without tests, and an investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the older people's commissioner into whether the human rights of older people were breached is ongoing.

There is an obligation on all of us to ensure that this narrative of marginalisation doesn't set in. Ninety-four per cent of everyone who has died from COVID-19 has been over the age of 60. Damage has been done and there's a further danger that older people and the many ills done to them will not be part of the story that this Government wants to tell. They must be central, because if we don't learn the lessons about the myriad inequalities that have been exposed by this virus, the same pattern will be repeated.

Let's look at the early response to the pandemic, particularly the UK Government's complacency, and compare it with other tragedies that have befallen our poorest communities. We see worrying patterns. In Grenfell, warning signs went unheeded for years because the people who were crying out weren't listened to. The British establishment has spent the past few years determined to not learn lessons, to not acknowledge responsibility and to not concede that poverty doesn't just strip people in this state of wealth, but of a voice. That can't be allowed to continue.

Likewise with COVID-19, a decade or more of austerity meant that there were insufficient stocks of personal protective equipment, whilst our defective social security system left many people unable to self-isolate when they needed to. Our society should be built around the needs of our most vulnerable citizens. Inequality cannot be a catalyst for disease. Our anger should not diminish. This should be a rallying cry, a chance for things to change, not just a report that gets noted. Diolch.