Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Thank you to the Minister for the statement. Thank you to Mark Isherwood on behalf of the Conservatives for emphasising how poorly Wales has been served by the UK over a period of years too. We are talking, in these early years in terms of Welsh taxation, about something that is historic—it's a word that I've used and others have also used. And it's a core principle. We return to the Silk commission stating that important principle of the crucial relationship between taxation and accountability, and that's what we're talking about here. The more taxation powers that this Senedd holds, the more accountable we are to the people of Wales, and that's something to be welcomed. And as we go into an election, we're now in this new landscape where the people of Wales have the ability to look at the various taxation pledges made by the parties, and it's a very important debate to have.

I'm disappointed with the developments there have been in addition to the taxes already introduced. The land transaction tax has worked well, I believe. The Welsh rates of income tax are crucial in generating the accountability that I mentioned earlier, and the landfill disposals tax is also important, but we need to look at how far we can take this.

The Government has referred to four other taxes that they would seek to consider: a social care levy—I look forward to seeing how we can provide social care within general expenditure and I'm sure that that is possible. The Government wants to look at a disposable plastics tax. It’s three years and more since Plaid Cymru forced a vote in this Senedd, stating that we wanted to see that tax, and where are we three years on from there? The tourism tax: I don't think, after the year we've just had, that we should be talking about a tourism tax—that's not what the sector wants to hear now. However, I do feel that there are innovative things that we can do through some sort of levy that will provide improved services to tourists, which would strengthen infrastructure to safeguard our communities where tourism is at its highest, to promote indigenous tourism, but we need to be very careful in talking about a tourism tax at this particular point.

And that fourth tax, the vacant land tax, the Government, to be fair, has been clear in pushing this agenda. I share the Minister's disappointment in the UK Government's response. It is proof of the failure of the inter-governmental process that no ground has been gained in this particular debate. It is a signal, I fear, of the UK Government's attitude towards giving powers to Wales to extend its taxation powers, which will be so important in years to come. However, I do urge the Minister not to give up now. I hope that it's my party that'll be in Government after May, but there's time to go until then, so don't rest on your laurels in pushing this new tax. I would encourage you to push this until the very last moment.

One further point: it is within your gift to change the rules, as Mark Isherwood mentioned, allowing people to opt out of paying tax on second properties in Wales. The Welsh Government has the power to close that loophole in order to ensure that those who own second homes, and at the moment can take advantage of the rules for their own benefit, shouldn't be able to do that. I know that the Government made a statement on this this week and, in that, you're not going far enough or moving quickly enough; we need improvements there, as part of these changes to the taxation landscape in Wales.