I'm grateful to the Chair for his introduction. I should also say we've been grateful for his leadership as well throughout this Senedd, as, since he took over as Chair, he's led the committee in a way that has, I think, demonstrated the power of the committee system and also the power of his own example as Chair. We're very grateful to him for that, and grateful also to the committee secretariat and research staff for their hard work. I hope they know that it's greatly appreciated.

The Chair, in his introduction, made our points with great clarity, and I think the committee report is clear in its conclusions, and many of the points made in that report and the recommendations agreed by the committee require little further explanation. Like other members of the committee, I'm grateful to the Minister and the Welsh Government for their generous approach to the report and in accepting some of our key recommendations.

The committee congratulates the Welsh Government on the implementation of the new taxes devolved to this place. All the new tax structures appear to have bedded down relatively easily and with little or no disruption. I have seen little or no evidence of difficulties experienced either by our institutions or by taxpayers as a consequence of the changes to the taxation system, and this is important, because this demonstrates that we can change fundamentally the tax structures of the United Kingdom and do so without the disruption that many people fear and that certainly some politicians seek to stoke and to create those fears. It's been done relatively straightforwardly and relatively easily, and done for the first time in that way, and I think that's a fundamentally important point to make.

There is one aspect that hasn't worked, of course, and that is the process that was described by the Chair in the closing part of his remarks over new taxation. It hasn't worked because the UK Government has stopped it working, and I think we need to be very clear about that as well. Some of us, Deputy Presiding Officer, are long enough in the tooth to remember the dreadful days of the legislative consent Orders and motions that we spent time discussing in the 2007 Senedd. I fear that we are returning to those days having learned none of the lessons of those days, and certainly it provides those of a particular disposition with an opportunity to frustrate the will of the people of Wales, the will of the Welsh Government and the will of our Parliament, and I think that is something that we are seeing played out at the moment. But we're planning to participate in this debate.

I also want to turn my attention to the correspondence we received this morning from the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. It is in many ways, Deputy Presiding Officer, an extraordinary letter. It is at different times arrogant, superficial, pompous, condescending, disdainful, scornful, bombastic—I could carry on, but I won't test everybody's patience by doing so. But it is, more than anything, an entirely inadequate response to the issues raised by the committee, and in many ways, it underlines the points that were made earlier today by the three finance Ministers of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It makes the case more powerfully than I ever could for a fundamental reworking of the financial framework of the United Kingdom. Deputy Presiding Officer, listen to the language that is used by the financial Secretary in this letter. In paragraph 10, 'Financial flexibility':

'I have provided significant additional flexibility this year' he says—'I have provided'. And it goes on in paragraph 11:

'I provided an unprecedented upfront funding guarantee'.

And he carries on:

'I also agreed the Welsh Government could carry forwards...Barnett-based funding.'

This demonstrates clearly that there is no conversation, no negotiation, no democracy, and little accountability in our financial frameworks and financial structures in the United Kingdom. This has to be unacceptable to anyone who believes in the future of the United Kingdom and the future of democracy and accountability in the United Kingdom. The financial structures of the UK and the relationships between the Governments on these islands cannot be determined by the whim of a single Minister, whoever that Minister believes he might be. In concluding, Deputy Presiding Officer, I hope—I noticed that face—that we will be able—I will be quick—to see this report not as a finishing point, but as a starting point for the financial structures of the United Kingdom and democratic reform and renewal.

In closing, I wish you, Deputy Presiding Officer, a very long and happy retirement. I will miss testing your patience if I am re-elected to the next Senedd.