Thank you, Llywydd. I thank Plaid Cymru for bringing this debate to the Chamber today, as it does highlight the dire need—the real need—to tackle poverty here in Wales, and the need to protect and look after children in need. It is very hard to concentrate and get a good education when your stomach is rumbling, and that's why I think there is now universal support for free school meals for our poorest pupils. But universal benefits, I would argue, Llywydd, are not the answer. Of course the state has a moral duty to protect those who fall below the poverty line, but it is not the responsibility of the state to feed everybody's children. Universal free meals would lead to a situation where relatively low-income people are paying extra in tax to fund free meals for families who can well afford to contribute to the system. The welfare system is a safety net to catch the vulnerable before they fall. Our citizens should have the dignity and freedom to choose how they spend their money and how to raise their own children. If a family can afford to feed their children, they should have the freedom to do so.

The past 16 months has seen an extraordinary rate of restrictions on the freedoms and liberties that we all take for granted; many have been for good reasons, to keep people safe, but we mustn't think that the public will tolerate this sort of nannying long term. It is not the role of Government to tell families how they should raise their children. Government needs to provide efficient and reliable public services, maximise investment to create jobs, and that's how you lift families out of poverty, not through nannying bureaucratic interventions. The Conservative amendment removes the reference to universal free school meals, but I do not want to detract from the rest of the motion by extending free school meals to those households that are on universal credit—16,400 more households will be eligible, meaning that those children could be better equipped to learn. But we should be cautious of gold-plating benefits like universal credit like this too often, as it creates a cliff edge and this creates the risk that they end up better off by living on the safety net rather than having the dignity and reward that a job and a monthly pay check will provide.

While on the subject of free school meals, I would urge the Welsh Government to improve the way that they process school admissions data so that schools are funded based on the number of free school meals pupils that they have, not on the number that they had two years ago. Welsh Government has a ridiculously bureaucratic funding system, which is denying pupils the targeted support and intervention that they need. It's the twenty-first century, Llywydd; such a system should have left our classrooms along with the BBC BASIC computer.

And, Llywydd, I cannot let this debate go past without mentioning, alongside free school meals, the academic benefits of sport and physical activity, which are also proven to improve academic attainment and improve concentration in the classroom. Even taking part in programmes like the daily mile, as was talked about earlier, can have a big impact, which I know from my son's own primary school. So, if we are serious about the benefits that we've heard in the Chamber today, the Welsh Government should be ring-fencing time and providing proper financial support to enable our schools to encourage sport and active lifestyles in our young people alongside free school meals. And I was pleased that the Minister actually said something on it earlier in this regard, but I would urge speed, Minister, as post pandemic, the benefits that physical activity can bring are even more than we've outlined today.

But the best thing we can do for children eligible for free school meals is to tackle poverty by attracting more investment that creates decent, well-paid jobs—opportunities for families to get on in life. An evidence review on child poverty conducted by the UK Government highlighted that one of the most important factors that contributes to child poverty is long-term worklessness and low earnings within the child's household. Thirty-eight per cent of children who experience persistent poverty live in workless households, and that's why, Llywydd, while this debate is well-intentioned, free school meals is a policy to treat the symptom. We need bold intervention to address the deep-rooted causes of poverty, so young people can do well in school and go on to secure well-paid jobs. In 22 years of Labour rule we have seen the Welsh economy stagnate, and, despite well-meaning reports and short-term policies, there has been no improvement in social mobility. Now is the time, Minister, to act and build that dynamic economy that will help poorer families get on in life.