Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. And can I thank the Business Committee for selecting this motion for debate and the many cross-party Members who supported the application too?

Buses and properly integrated public transport are clearly very important to the Senedd and to the constituents we serve. Now, no doubt, today some Members will have stories to tell of our own local services. Some will be of services lost during or even before the pandemic; some will be of creative new ways to provide transport solutions, particularly for people who rely on public and community transport in remote and rural areas. And we will also hear, I hope, of the courage of drivers and of staff who kept essential bus services going during the height of the pandemic and since. These real local and Wales-wide experiences will be good to hear in the Senedd.

But I hope we'll also have time to focus on the way forward for Wales, for every part of Wales, which must involve truly radical reform to and innovation and investment in our buses, scheduled buses and Fflecsi buses and on-demand buses, but also a far greater integration of different types of public and community transport, streamlined timetables and ticketing, a step change in modal shift from individual to communal transport and to active travel, wherever possible, to help to tackle climate change, lessening the need for longer travel too, by creating local communities with jobs and services and retail and opportunities to socialise in easy travelable distance by foot or by bike.

But let us begin with buses, because I suspect that's what many people will want to hear about. I won't be alone in having witnessed many cuts to services over recent years, and the cuts have often fallen hardest on the most remote communities, and often communities with already existing significant disadvantage. The beautiful tops of my valleys—the hilltops in my valleys—they're often former coal-mining communities and social housing estates. They're also often poorly served by shops and health provision and job opportunities and clubs and community centres in which to mix and socialise. They're often where car ownership is lowest and where the residents are often older and less well and less mobile. Yet these are the very communities—so often, the ones where the cuts are seen first. And often those cuts come first as temporary, because of reported problems with navigating narrow streets with parked cars for buses, or damage to buses or anti-social behaviour, or because of the pandemic. But, so often, these cuts become permanent, despite representations from local people and local representatives. Sometimes the cuts, we are told, come because the route just isn't profitable. Yet buses and public transport have a true social and economic purpose. They connect people and communities. Without buses, we have isolated communities and isolated people, with all the ills that that brings for them individually and for society. We cannot reduce buses simply to a transaction of money for a ticket or to cold calculations of short-term profitability on different routes. They are more than that. As Marion and Keith in Caerau said to the BBC last night, they are the lifeline for people to meet their friends, get to the doctor or hospital, get to work and be part of their wider community. Without them, communities are isolated and alone and so are individuals.