But we will now move to the short debate, and I call on Laura Anne Jones to speak to the topic that she has chosen.

Carry on, you're unmuted now. Oh, you were unmuted, then—. There you go.

Now I'm unmuted. Sorry, that took a while. Thank you, Presiding Officer. This is on making a pitch for the future, about artificial grass pitches in Wales. I thank you, Presiding Officer, and I've agreed that Jack Sargeant and Rhun ap Iorwerth can have time to contribute to this debate, and I thank them in advance for making the contributions. 

We all recognise the importance of children, young people and adults taking part in sport. Team sports participation promotes health and well-being, builds confidence, teaches discipline, to work as a team, and it helps to maintain mental health. This Government need to commit to ensuring children and adults of all sporting abilities and all parts of Wales, urban and rural, have easy access to all-year-round, all-weather sporting facilities close to where they live.

For those who need clarification on what I'm talking about, as I mention 3G and 4G to some people and they think I'm talking about phone signal, it's fair enough; not everyone is a sport nut like me. I'm talking about artificial grass pitches, the different levels and the different thickness and quality for professional or community use. However, you don't need to be a sport nut to recognise the ever-increasing importance of such facilities, which, like with many things, have been highlighted by this pandemic. It's imperative, therefore, that we do all that we can to encourage and facilitate those who wish to get involved in sport.

As soon as we hit the winter, many sporting opportunities have to stop due to the weather impacting our pitches and ability to train or play matches. When I was secretary of a local junior football club, the biggest barrier stopping children playing sport throughout the winter was the weather and its effect on the real grass pitches. The major issue has sparked a surge in football swapping from grass to third generation pitches that the whole community can enjoy without the worry of damaging the pitch. The stresses of training and matches having to be continually cancelled for many, many clubs throughout our winter months, particularly in rural areas where facilities are poor, is just not good enough in 2021.

It's true that poor quality artificial pitches in the 1980s did create a stigma that's difficult to shake off, but synthetic pitches have now reached much higher standards than they did when they first became popular, which is great news for players and coaches and forces manufacturers to leave no stone unturned when delivering on quality. The growth in popularity of small-sided soccer means a huge proportion of young players will now develop their skills on synthetic pitches. As a result, many are used to the consistency that man-made services offer and many of our towns are benefiting from that, but not, unfortunately, many of our rural areas. Today, artificial grass pitches don't just replicate the playing conditions on natural turf; in some cases, it can exceed them. From the coaching perspective, as well as the consistency, these surfaces are favoured as they replicate the bounce and run of a natural surface.

I commissioned research into the need and want for artificial grass pitches when I joined the Senedd last year, which was carried out by a Welsh veteran footballer who had the knowledge and access to all levels of football and sports that would benefit from having such closed pitches based in a club close to where they lived. The response was phenomenal and conclusive, from grass-roots junior sports clubs to Newport county manager, Michael Flynn. The need for all-weather training and playing facilities was apparent. Children and young people will be able to play all year round, ensuring continuity in their fitness levels, from mental health from playing sport and seeing their friends, to learning key skills, they'll be able to play sport in the winter months, as many families are unable to take their children the distance required to travel to facilities in local towns that clubs have to hire, or see their children not play sport. It will ensure normal grass football and rugby pitches aren't ruined from overplay when they're trying to play in the wet weather and mud. Adults, too, want to continue playing throughout the winter months. It's essential for our lower-league clubs that they continue to train and play and for all our leagues throughout Wales, because, of course, it mucks up fixtures and they're continually headaches for those sport clubs to try and re-do the fixtures.

For professional sport, it would mean they are on an equal footing with the rest of the UK and world and give children the very best opportunities for us to develop future Welsh sporting stars. Professional clubs could train, play and train in all weather, all year round, to ensure fixtures can go ahead and that clubs can develop academies without having to worry about pitches.

The installation of 3G pitches actually has the potential to create new sources of income and greater opportunities for people to get involved in sport at all levels. A wide range of sport can be played on these latest 3G pitches in addition to football, which means that community clubs can provide multi-sport facilities, creating essential hubs that would undoubtedly be fully booked all year round, from the evidence that I've collected, as the need is so great for these all-weather facilities.

Like with any financial outlay, sports clubs, when considering artificial turf, will need to look at the payback period and the return on the investment. I know the Football Association of Wales, Hockey Wales, Welsh Rugby Union, working in conjunction with Sport Wales have established a nationally agreed vision and model for developing clubs and increasing participation through appropriately located and fit-for-purpose playing surfaces. I've had a conversation with those organisations who wholeheartedly agree there is an absolute need for Wales to invest in more 3G and 4G pitches for our community and professional use. The FAW has set up a target of 100 3G pitches in Wales by 2024. This is very welcome, but where? I would press the Government to ensure the roll-out—for there to be more pitches, and to go further for all parts of Wales. We need it to go further to ensure the whole of Wales benefits from the expansion of the artificial grass pitches, as they are overwhelmingly present in urban areas and south Wales at the moment.

Presiding Officer, as you can tell, I believe passionately in the benefits of us investing in 3G and 4G all-weather facilities for community sport and our league clubs, and for communities to enjoy. There are so many benefits for our country; sport-wise, but also in the mental health benefits for people young and old. It would completely reform grass-roots rugby, football and other sports for all ages and all abilities. It would give our professionals equal opportunities to develop their game, ensuring that we don't lose future stars to England due to the facilities being so much better over the border. It's time Wales caught up.

I was devastated to learn a couple of years ago when applying for a pitch myself that the funding had ceased for the roll-out of these 3G and 4G pitches. I don't want to make this party-political at all, in fact, and I welcome the Government's new commitment to roll out these pitches further. But I ask this Government and the next to invest heavily and invest fast in rolling out a programme of ensuring all-weather 3G and 4G pitches for as many parts of Wales as possible, which are easy to reach for all communities, 3G and 4G sports access for all across our country, with particular focus on rural areas, and a joined-up approach in supporting our lower leagues with those facilities, so we can support the creation at the same time of more academies and more opportunities for our young people to exceed in sport. I please ask you all for your support in this. Thanks.

Thank you to Laura Anne Jones for allowing me to speak in this important short debate. I, too, am very passionate, like Laura, about improving sports facilities, not just in my community but across Wales, and I know the difference that artificial pitches can make.

A community with a real case for an artificial pitch development is Buckley in Alyn and Deeside. They have an amazing Welsh-supported local club, Buckley town. They have had huge battles over the years with issues with drainage, and it would not be uncommon in a normal season for the team to have most of their home games postponed because of the issue. And this is a real issue in Buckley, as it is across in other constituencies and communities across Wales.

Llywydd, I have met with the FAW and Sport Wales and will be using the post-COVID period to urge these organisations to get right behind an artificial pitch for Buckley, alongside the local authority and the local councillors. But I think Laura Anne Jones made a good point in her contribution, and I'll be urging the Minister responsible today, the Deputy Minister for sport, to throw his weight behind these projects, but I'll also be urging the future Minister with responsibility for these types of developments to throw their weight and influence behind these community developments, which are so important to so many.

Llywydd, in finishing, Buckley needs a pitch, and it's not just for football on a Saturday; it's for a whole community, all week, all year round, and we all must do all we can to deliver it. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

Thank you, Laura, for the opportunity to say a few words. This is an issue that is very close to my heart. All-weather facilities are so very important. I've played and coached on 3G pitches, including playing for the Senedd on the Arms Park in Cardiff, and there's a 3G pitch in Llangefni that has enabled us as a rugby club to train youngsters through the very worst weather that Anglesey can throw at us. But we need more of these resources. I've been doing everything I can to develop support and attract investment for new 3G pitches in Amlwch and Holyhead. There's a community initiative doing excellent work in Amlwch. There is a plan in place for Holyhead, although it isn't a full-size pitch, and I'm eager to push for the best possible facilities for the town. So, let us truly prioritise this. Let us see the Government prioritise investment in all-weather facilities and there will be community and health benefits to that.

The Deputy Minister to reply to the debate—Dafydd Elis-Thomas.

May I first of all thank Laura Anne?

I'm very grateful to you for bringing this debate forward. It's very timely. It's timely for me, as the current sports Minister, but it's also timely in this crisis, because nothing has more demonstrated the importance—the essentiality, I would say, the essential need—for physical exercise, and to give people a choice of physical exercise, than the crisis that we've been through.

I will respond with my nice formal ministerial speech in Welsh. I know you won't object to that, because you're used to listening to me through translation, and it probably sounds better than I sound in the original.

As I said, this has been a very challenging time, and sport has been hit particularly. I was pleased to be able to announce a package earlier this week of £17 million, which will mean that the total funding for the sector will be more than £40 million since the beginning of this crisis. We are entirely supportive as a Government of what was said earlier during this debate.

Wales, according to Sport Wales's figures—and they're always right, of course—has 84 3G pitches; those are full-size pitches. There are 77 artificial turf pitches for hockey, and 116 other artificial pitches, and that's across Wales. But I'm not sure if 'artificial pitches' is the term that I would favour in either English or Welsh, because they are all-weather facilities. They are still playing fields. We should perhaps not call them 'fields', but I would like to call them all-weather facilities. In the weather that we have here in Wales, that's crucially important, of course. We must have modern facilities in order to ensure that people's participation in all weathers in sport in Wales can occur.

Therefore, the investment that we have already put in place for these facilities does show the possibilities available. At the moment, as you will know, we have a collaborative sports facilities group, led by Sport Wales, which includes the Football Association of Wales Trust, the Welsh Rugby Union and Hockey Wales, to establish artificial playing surfaces—I've just rejected that term, but they are involved with providing all-weather surfaces across Wales, and, in addition to the £3 million invested when the group was established, there has been an additional £731,000 invested in turf pitches across Wales through the new £5 million capital fund I announced last year. That means that the FAW Trust has been able to support 77 3G artificial football pitches, with a target of 100, as we've heard, by 2024.

So, what gives me great joy this evening is that there is three-party support for that project, and if I can do one thing at the end of my term as sport Minister, it would be to ensure that sport is always an issue that all parties in Wales will support without argument, and also support the way in which we can develop these projects. So, I'm grateful to Jack Sargeant, Rhun ap Iorwerth and Laura Jones for their contributions to this debate. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Deputy Minister, and that brings today's proceedings to a close. Good afternoon. 

The meeting ended at 17:50.