So, this report comprehensively examines how recovery should look across the committee's portfolio and, in the short term, we now would like to see and draw Members' attention to three key areas, and they are: one, continuing support for hard-hit sectors; two, using reconstruction funding to reinvigorate and retool our economy; and three, avoiding a scarred generation of young people. 

So, I'll talk to each of those points in turn. So, the effects of the pandemic have not been felt equally across the economy. We heard evidence from businesses that rely on people coming together, like tourism and hospitality or those who provide contact services, like hair and beauty, and they've been particularly affected. Many venues, like theatres, nightclubs and exhibition spaces, closed their doors a year ago and haven't been able to trade since. So, we hope for a summer of reunions with friends and family, many of which will take place in tourism and hospitality businesses. However, one good summer will not make up for the lost trade from last year. Tourism providers have described what has just passed as three consecutive winters. 

Similarly, I've had a do-it-yourself haircut. I haven't had a haircut since the middle of December. I can see Members looking up from their screens now checking my hair height. But the point is this: I won't be having an extra haircut when hairdressers reopen again. So, it's likely that the economy will be affected differently in different sectors.

It's likely that Wales's manufacturing industries will also take some time to recover. For example, we heard evidence that the aerospace industry would take three or four years to recover to the 2019 levels. Now, the committee believes it is clear that businesses that felt effects the worst in the pandemic need a stronger and a longer recovery strategy than the rest of the economy. So, it's vital that the next Welsh Government sets out this strategy very early on and, as part of it, it must also make clear any additional funding it thinks it needs from the UK Government. 

Now, a dramatic drop in public transport usage has meant that companies involved in transport services have also been heavily affected. So, the next Welsh Government as well must set out a long-term plan for public transport recovery as well. 

Tuning to my next point with regard to using reconstruction funding to reinvigorate and retool our economy, the picture on the front of the report—I'm just holding it up here—is a daffodil. Now, that's not just because we launched our report on St David's Day, not at all, it's because we're looking for optimism and opportunity from the recovery. Just like flowers appearing after a winter or with the right nutrition, our economy can grow anew. So, the committee heard that at the end of the first lockdown, there was a real surge in entrepreneurial spirit and release, and a surge in start-ups. Now, if the Welsh Government can capture that energy, it can be used to tackle the relatively low start-up rates that we have in Wales now.

We also heard about how a skills-led recovery could promote better productivity and tackle low skills traps, a key problem that I know the committee has reported on in the past. Alongside this, we heard evidence that investment in research and innovation would also improve Wales's productivity and its resilience. So, business representatives, unions, think tanks, academics and environmental organisations all told us, as Members, about the environmental and economic gains that could be made by investing in a greener economy. So, the next Welsh Government—certainly we, as a committee, believe—should prioritise accelerating shovel-ready green infrastructure projects to boost job creation, and the next programme for government must have skills at its heart, in the view of the committee. The Welsh Government must seize the opportunities set out in this report and use reconstruction to create a more innovative, resilient and future-proofed economy for Wales with a highly skilled workforce engaged in high productivity, resilient and environmentally friendly jobs.

The last section, which I talked about at the beginning of my contribution, was youth unemployment. The committee was pleased that the Welsh Government has committed to ensuring that no-one is left behind by the recovery. Now, we know that people who were already disadvantaged in the job market feel the worst effects when the market shrinks. The report contains a section on recovery for all, which outlines the steps the Government must take to support an equal recovery to meet its pledge. Young people are a group who have been left behind in past economic emergencies and we heard from several experts who were extremely anxious about the spike in youth unemployment creating a scarred generation.

Wales already has two cohorts of young people deeply affected by COVID-19 and there's no doubt that the pandemic and the economic emergency that this created will affect students leaving education and training for some time to come. Professor Keep likened youth unemployment to filling a bath—every year more young people and graduates come out of university and that bath keeps filling up if those people can't then find their way into the labour market and secure high-quality and fulfilling employment. If our young people can't find their way into the labour market, if they spend a long time unemployed or if they can't find the right path in the churn between employment, training and unemployment, their lives could potentially be scarred and their wings clipped for the rest of their careers. We know that this scarring will follow them, potentially, throughout their whole lives, reducing their earning potential and prosperity.

So, tackling the beckoning prospect of a scarred generation of young people must be absolutely a priority for the next Welsh Government. Its success or failure with this objective will ripple beyond the first half of the twenty-first century. I very much look forward to Members' contributions to this debate this afternoon.