This is a budget that we in Plaid Cymru hope to inherit in a little over two months' time, so I will start with those parts that we welcome, although we do believe that the Government could have gone further. The £380 million in addition for the NHS, we welcome that. We welcome any additional funding for health and care at this time, given the acute pressures faced during the pandemic, and also the £50 million for the track and trace work. I'm pleased that the local government hardship fund has received an additional allocation of £207 million, with a further allocation of £224 million for education and housing, and £200 million for business support. That's to be welcomed too.

But of course, we know that that is only scratching the surface given the needs of businesses and the Welsh economy, given a year of COVID restrictions. That's where we start to get to the point where I see this budget has not been bold enough. The day after the publication of this budget, over £700 million of additional revenue funding was announced, due to decisions to increase spending in England. So, there is some additional flexibility here, and there is a balance to be struck, isn't there?

As I argued as we discussed the third supplementary budget earlier this afternoon, we have supported this element of caution in how additional funds provided during the year should be spent, and the need to hold some funds in reserve rather than spending everything today, as the Conservatives have been encouraging, which is rather irresponsible given how the circumstances of the pandemic have been constantly changing. But when we are talking about a 12-month budget such as this, I think there is room to map out more clearly and, in many ways, more radically how additional funds should be used over the next year.

So, I want greater clarity on business support, for example. What next steps are in place? Have the Minister for finance and the Minister for the economy discussed how best to spend the funding that will now be available over and above what was planned for initially? Is continuing with the current level of funding for apprenticeships at a cost of £16.5 million really good enough in this current climate? I wouldn't have thought so, when we know that we're facing a very major challenge in terms of youth unemployment. Surely we should be seeking to increase the number of training places and apprenticeships available. And as a Government in May, we in Plaid Cymru want to introduce an employment guarantee for young people at 16 to 24, alongside an apprenticeship or a college or university course—a modern version of the Roosevelt new deal, with the emphasis on building a green future.

I think there was a very real opportunity for the Welsh Government to set out its stall for recovery, yes, but also for providing fairness where that doesn't exist at the moment. I'm concerned, in looking at the figures that we have before us. I see that £1.3 billion is available to be allocated over the next year, according to the Wales fiscal analysis team at Cardiff University. I'm concerned at seeing that while seeing simultaneously that truly vulnerable people are in need now. So, we are of the view that there is funding left to extend free school meals and to freeze council tax—things that truly would make a difference to people. And, yes, it's up to Labour Members to answer to their constituents as to why they voted against the extension of free school meals, and not to prioritise fairness in this way, where we believe that there is a very real opportunity to have done so. But as I say, there was an opportunity to set the Government's stall out for economic recovery here too.

Twenty years of leading Welsh Government has seen Labour, I think, failing to lead the kind of transformation that would put the Welsh economy on a path towards higher paid employment, higher skill levels, and so on and so forth, and there is that opportunity now and we must take those opportunities. There's a vision, I think, that's been set out by Plaid Cymru of—