I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate today. There aren't many days when I walk in and don't think of this subject, because I see my colleague from Blaenau Gwent here, who has spoken eloquently of his personal experience—traumatic experience, I would suggest—and the importance of people having knowledge, when it comes to defibrillators, means that he is here with us. There are some days when he is contributing that maybe I wish he was in the tea room rather then in here—[Laughter.]—but it's great to see him around and walking and enjoying life.

And it is good to see a smile on people's faces when that is said, because the other contributor to this debate in the previous Assembly was Suzy Davies, who led many a debate in here about the need to have, in the curriculum in particular, education around defibrillators and the use of defibrillators in the community, because there's no point in having them if you can't use them and deploy them, and I think we all agree with that point as well. I'm pleased to see that the former Government did change its stance after much lobbying from Suzy Davies to get this important point into the Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Act 2021, so that there would be space within the curriculum for that education to be provided in colleges and schools the length and breadth of Wales, because, again, we hear the numbers, as Gareth in his opening remarks touched on, and 8,000 people will experience a cardiac arrest in Wales every year.

Cardiac arrests kill more people than lung cancer, breast cancer and AIDS combined—combined. That's worth reflecting on. With lung cancer, breast cancer and AIDS combined, more people die of cardiac arrest here in Wales. But there is a solution: we can make these devices more readily available, and we can make sure that these devices are in every community the length and breadth of Wales. But what's important is that when we make them available they're available for 24/7 use, not just in limited occupations, such as in college settings, for example, where many colleges indicate that they have them, and that's to be welcomed, but it's not much good being in the college if the door's locked and you can't get to it when you need it. And so that's why we need more community activism to try and get more community halls, and sports settings in particular, to make sure they make use of these facilities. And that's why I've been so pleased in my role—and I'm not seeking re-election in May next year, so this isn't a pitch for the election next year; I do declare an interest—that I've had the pleasure of playing a part in raising funds for at least five defibrillators in the ward of Rhoose to make sure that from the football club to the residential setting of Rhoose Point to the village of Llantrithyd, there are now defibrillators available to those communities. And that's where it is really important.

I regret that the Government have chosen to delete the one point in this motion today that actually called on action on behalf of the Government to engage with community groups to make sure money was available on a consistent and sustainable footing to make sure that we can get those numbers up that Gareth touched on. At the moment, we know there are about 4,000 defibrillators across Wales. We most probably need, if we're going to be having meaningful national coverage, double that number, and that's a big ask. But I do believe that the Government have taken a backward step in trying to seek to delete this point in the motion this afternoon, because it is a consensual motion and ultimately looks to achieve that national coverage by calling on the Government to make those national resources available.

I appreciate the Government amendment talks to money that's been made available by the Government to various community groups, but clearly, there's a lot, lot more work to be done. When you look at the education responses the Welsh Conservatives have had back, in particular from local education authorities, only Denbighshire could indicate exactly what the school settings had when it came to defibrillators. The other 11 local authorities out of 12 who responded to the FOI confirmed that there is no centralised database within the education department to indicate where in schools defibrillators might or might not be. Again, that's a gaping hole in our understanding of what we can do.

There's a lot of work to do, but we are making progress in this area. I hope we can find a consensus with this debate today, because as we've seen with the pandemic, regrettably it was one in ten before the pandemic who survived a cardiac arrest here in Wales, and it's now one in 20, so the numbers have gone backwards. That's no-one's fault, because of the pandemic—I accept that—but it emphasises the mountain that we've got to climb and the work we've got to do in communities across the whole of Wales to make sure that we create greater education around the use of defibrillators, and access to defibrillators, importantly. I'll repeat that line again: they need to be readily available 24/7. There's no point in ticking a box saying that defibrillator is in a locked setting that's unavailable for 12 hours of the day, or for the weekend period. Because as Alun had in his experience, he happened to be in a park; at the end of the day, he was lucky that somebody someone went past and could action what was needed to do to bring him back to life. But who knows where that might strike one of those 8,000 people in Wales who would have that cardiac episode.

I call on the Government to do more, as inevitably the opposition does when it comes to debates on a Wednesday afternoon. But I do commend the Government for the work that it did in the last Assembly with Suzy Davies in making sure that there was a space in the education curriculum to allow greater educational learning so people know what to do if they're presented with that. I'm getting looked at by the Presiding Officer now, because the red line has come up, so on that note, I'll close. Thank you.