I'd like to obviously thank Huw Irranca-Davies for bringing forward this motion to debate. I think both Huw and I have a shared interest locally as we both hail from the glorious constituency of Ogmore—myself in Pencoed and Huw, of course, in Maesteg. And, of course, I think it's fair to say that both of us have family members who often rely on bus services to get to work or to attend hospital appointments. 

I think we're all aware that, no matter the area we represent, buses and the provision of bus services is often the most raised issue in our in-boxes. In the election, for example, I lost count the amount of times bus services were raised with me, in particular by constituents who were retired and, more often than not, relying on the service to get to an appointment, in my case, or in the cases that I come across, at the Princess of Wales Hospital.

I think the Deputy Minister for Climate Change hit the nail on the head yesterday, and I think he's going to be very happy that I've said this, that buses are as much a social justice issue as they are a climate change or a transport issue. For example, we know that the majority of bus users—some 80 per cent—do not have access to a private car. We also know that the vast majority of bus users who rely on the services are on low incomes. And, again, coming back to Ogmore, as Huw is aware, the vast majority of the constituency isn't covered by rail. And this isn't a unique characteristic of Ogmore, this is something that is seen across Wales. The Ogmore and Garw valleys are solely reliant on bus services for public transport and that's a pattern that we see everywhere in Wales, as I've said, from the Ogmore valleys to the Neath valleys and to the Swansea valleys. A lot of these areas are reliant on these services and, despite this, services are under constant threat of being cut or being altered because they are no longer profitable.

And profit I think is a key word for us to consider in this debate. The reality is that so long as bus services are in the hands of companies that are driven by profit, they will never be driven by the needs of our communities—that's the bottom line. The Minister for Finance and Local Government alluded to this in an answer she gave earlier on today: where services are needed, largely in low-income communities, they are pretty much non-existent and of poor quality, but where people can afford to pay more for the service, then the quality of the service is great. It's important now as this debate progresses—and it needs to progress as a matter of urgency, by the way—that we focus on how we can ensure that our bus services and the wider public transport system work for our communities, and communities, again, being the operative word here. For me, that's bringing the power back to the people and to bring our essential services back into public hands.