Research from Carers Wales shows that unpaid carers looking after disabled, ill or elderly family members or friends have saved the Welsh Government £33 million every single day since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Against that backdrop, the provision of £3 million during the whole of 2021-22—split into two phases, with a first phase of £1.75 million further split between 22 local authorities in Wales—leaves us under no illusion that this is more of a sticking plaster rather than an attempt at a long-term solution.

Carers Wales research also shows that the pandemic has severely affected carers' ability to take a break, which has an impact on their health and well-being. Nearly seven out of 10 carers in Wales say that their mental health has got worse because of a lack of breaks while caring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sixty-eight per cent of carers said that their physical health has deteriorated during the pandemic. The Deputy Minister explained that this funding is for emergency respite care, mainly for those at crisis point, and gives us little confidence that the Government is fully grasping the central point—that carers should have respite as a matter of course, and should be properly recognised in every context, including financially.

Plaid Cymru has long advocated the creation of a seamless national health and social care service, and for rethinking our approach to health and care delivery, and focusing on prevention. One central access point into such a service would be to do away with bureaucracy and let us focus on the needs of citizens. We must also ensure that we have the levers in Wales to properly reward carers and to allow transformative action, as we would be able to do by seeking the powers to replace the carer's allowance with a universal carer's income—non-means-tested and equal to at least the level of the jobseeker's allowance—for all carers providing more than 35 hours of care. Could the Minister confirm the Welsh Government's position on this particular matter? Is it something that the Government is considering?

You refer in your statement to the fund providing extra flexibility, and that it will develop more flexible and innovative forms of respite that are tailored to individual need. Can you elaborate on this point? I've heard from a number of unpaid carers about their experiences and the need to jump through hoops and fill out masses of paperwork to receive respite care. Can you tell us more about the process for how unpaid carers can access respite services from this fund? Additionally, how many carers are you aiming to reach with this fund?

Figures show that three quarters of carers have received no respite at all. It's one thing to praise the work of unpaid carers, but how many people will this relatively small sum of money reach? And my last question: how will consistency be ensured in the delivery of the scheme, and in the distribution of funding, especially in the absence of a consistent, unified national health and social care model, which Plaid Cymru has long advocated for? Diolch yn fawr.