I'm very pleased that Plaid Cymru co-submitted this debate this afternoon and that this is a joint motion from the opposition parties, which does show how strongly feelings run on this issue. But from my perspective, of course, this is a motion laid in a positive sense and it begins a process of compromise. That's what the motion does. The Welsh Government, if I may say so, has responded constructively with their amendment, and I am surprised at the aggressive contributions we've heard so far. References to Cardiff Airport and trade deals with Australia miss the point. We don't need to pick a fight today; we need to start the process of finding a better solution to the problems of the NVZs.

Prior to the election, when myself and Plaid Cymru presented the motion to annul the new regulations, I said that I and my party would be willing to work with Government to look at alternative solutions to the problem of river pollution, if the Government were willing to step back. Now, the Government rejected that option at that time, and although it does appear that the Government is willing to refer this issue to the relevant committee of the Senedd, everyone needs to understand that supporting this motion or the amendment today wouldn't prevent the regulations from being implemented. We would all welcome the opportunity for a cross-party committee to evaluate the regulations in a way that hasn't happened so far, and to bring regulations forward so that the Government can consider those, but, of course, there would be no requirement on the Government to act on those recommendations. But as the Government amendment does allow referring this issue to a committee, I do assume from that that the Government would be open to changing the regulations or even to scrap them, if the case becomes clear in the work of the committee.

So, I want to hear three things from the Minister in her response to the debate this afternoon. I want the Minister to confirm that she and her officials would initially look seriously at any recommendations made by a committee; secondly, that she commits to do everything that she can to amend the regulations in light of those recommendations; and third, that she confirms that annulling the regulations is a possible option, following the work of the committee. Clearly, a strong case would need to be made for that, and I would assume that we would need to identify an alternative approach to tackling water pollution, but I want to hear from the Minister this afternoon that the option of scrapping these regulations is on the table, because that's the only thing that can prove to me that the Government is truly willing to consider this issue and that it is worth referring it to a committee of the Senedd. 

You'll all recall that Plaid Cymru never argued for not taking action to protect water quality, and we would have supported the Government regulations had we believed that they would have worked. But there are so many weaknesses and unanswered questions that we now need to take a step back. You only need to look, as we've heard from others, at the results of the NVZ approach across Britain and other areas to see that it's not a silver bullet that will resolve all problems overnight. We also know, of course, that there will be negative environmental impacts by losing much of the cattle grazing, and we will probably see more sheep introduced to our uplands, which will lead to further environmental decline. Dairy processors in Wales have been in touch with me to express their concerns about the viability of the sector. One has suggested that they have an analysis demonstrating that up to a third of all dairy farms will cease production, and one company is already planning to move its operations elsewhere because they anticipate the detrimental impact that these regulations will have on the viability of the dairy sector.

The capital cost is something we've already heard about: up to £360 million, and that is more than the total income of agriculture in Wales in a year. That's how disproportionate these requirements are. And the Government, in introducing these regulations, has placed a bill of tens of millions of pounds on our local authorities, which will have to invest around £36 million on the 1,000 council-held holdings we have in Wales.

So, yes, introduce regulations, by all means, but target them where Natural Resources Wales says they are needed, and build on the voluntary plans, such as the blue flag and, as we heard from Cefin Campbell, Taclo'r Tywi in Golden Grove, and develop a risk matrix, as has happened in England, where we can communicate daily with farmers as to how appropriate it would be to spread slurry, enabling us to use new technology and using real-time communication in a far more dynamic and sophisticated way than these primal regulations that just follow a calendar and will ultimately lead to more problems than they will solve.