Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. It's so disheartening to hear the Welsh Conservatives state, week after week, that they think that Wales is somehow overfunded, or even sufficiently funded, and I would ask the Welsh Conservatives just to do their own research and to consider some of the facts, the figures, the responsibilities. Look at the historic underfunding of rail in Wales, for example. Ask yourselves if you can be satisfied with that. Look at the way in which HS2 is being categorised by the UK Government as a Wales-and-England scheme, even though the UK Government's own figures show it will be detrimental to Wales, and especially south-west Wales, and ask yourselves if you're satisfied with that. And consider whether you're content that the new border control points should not attract any additional funding from the UK Government, even though they are new and unfunded as the result of Brexit. Consider whether you think that free ports in Wales should only attract £8 million of funding, compared to every free port in England having £25 million. If you're content and satisfied with all of that, you explain that to your constituents. But if, after considering the facts and the funding and the responsibilities, you're as angry as we are on these benches, then do something about this and work with us to put your influence on your colleagues in Westminster to make this right.

The Barnett formula was never designed for this; £600 million over 10 to 15 years is a huge amount of funding, and where will it come from? It will come from schools, it will come from hospitals, it will come from road maintenance and it will come from social housing. It doesn't come from thin air.

I want to put on record and give a little bit of clarity around the £31 million that was described as well. So, that was an amount of funding I negotiated with the UK Government that if the UK Government deemed that we couldn't afford to spend that at the end of the financial year then it would provide the additional funding. It was a form of guarantee, and it was very helpful because it allowed us to have that certainty and that confidence to move on and make plans and investments in the immediate aftermath. However, colleagues will be aware that Welsh Government had significant funding at the end of the financial year as a result of late announcements of COVID consequentials from the UK Government and also our better management of finances here in Wales in respect of test, trace, protect and personal protective equipment, for example. And, as such, the UK Government netted off that £31 million from the COVID fund, therefore not providing that additional funding. So, I think it's worth just having the facts on that.

What I don't want to do today in these discussions that we've been having about coal tips is to cause alarm, and that's something that I think is really important, because we've been gaining a very good and better understanding of our coal tips across Wales, and we now have a much, much better picture of the number and their current status, and we've obviously established a robust inspection and maintenance regime by working with the Coal Authority—UK Coal Authority—and local authorities. The inspection programme ensures that those tips are regularly inspected and any maintenance work is identified and carried out within set time frames to mitigate as many risks as possible. And the next round of winter inspections on the higher risk tips will commence next week and will be carried out jointly by the Coal Authority and local authorities. So, I want to provide that reassurance to communities who might have been unsettled by the focus that is on coal tips at the moment. In addition to this, we're also piloting new technological trials on selected tips, trialling, for example, sensor equipment that is placed on the tips to monitor movement, as well as satellite imagery to remotely measure soil moisture levels below ground. And if anybody is concerned about a tip in their locality, including the drainage systems, then there is a freephone helpline that they can call, and an e-mail address, on the Welsh Government's website. And following the storms and the landslips back in Tylorstown and Wattstown, we did provide a letter of comfort to local authorities so that they could get on and undertake that immediate safety work without having to worry about where the funding was coming from, and I think that that was welcomed by local authorities too.

So, let's just reflect finally that these communities have made significant sacrifices in terms of the coal industry, not least through the coal tips but also in so many other ways in terms of the health impacts that these communities are still feeling, and I think it's really time to recognise that this does predate devolution and it's time, really, to show our commitment jointly, with the UK Government, to these communities.

I was really, actually, heartened by Darren Millar's comments today in the First Minister's statement on inter-governmental relations. He said,

'I and my colleagues on the Welsh Conservative benches completely agree that there needs to be a joint, collaborative approach to addressing the concerns... given that they are...a legacy from the pre-devolution era.'

So, Darren Millar recognised that this is a pre-devolution issue, and Darren Millar recognised that the UK Government also has a role to play in this. I do think that this is an opportunity now for all of us, cross-party, to send a really strong message to the UK Government. Surely, this is something that the people in Wales, and especially in those coal-mining communities, would expect us to do and deserve for us to do on a cross-party basis. Diolch.