I wish everybody a happy new year and a healthy 2022.

While there is much to be welcomed in this budget, it unfortunately does little to address the massive crisis facing social care in Wales. This budget will put into effect the Welsh Government's answer to the recruitment crisis facing the care sector, namely a wage of £9.90 per hour. But unfortunately, this is too little, too late, as a couple of days ago the UK's second biggest supermarket chain, Sainsbury's, announced that they are about to pay a minimum wage of £10 an hour, and we've already seen Lidl increase their minimum wage to £10.10 per hour. How can we justify paying those caring for our most vulnerable less money than somebody working in a supermarket? And I've recently been criticised for making this comparison, but I'm not denigrating those providing a valuable service in keeping our nation fed, but simply pointing out the perversity of paying people working in the care sector less than supermarket workers.

A year ago, when my party were drawing up our policy platform, when we committed to paying a minimum of £10 per hour to care staff, this was well above the minimum wage, and part of a package aimed at making the caring profession an attractive career prospect for young people. We can't continue to exploit those whose care and compassion drives them to dedicate their lives to caring for others. Adequate pay and conditions for care staff should have been implemented on day one of this sixth Senedd, but thanks to continued dither and delay, we are reaping the whirlwind. We have a recruitment crisis in care and it's having a clear and demonstrated effect on our NHS, as one in six NHS beds are occupied by patients who are medically able to be discharged but cannot be sent home because of the lack of a care package—a care package that cannot be provided because of a lack of care staff. And this has driven some local health boards to directly employ care staff, which in turn has resulted in poaching staff from the care sector.

Sadly, this budget does little to address these issues. It will do nothing to address the recruitment crisis, and the additional moneys for social care are going to be pumped into the integrated care fund—a fund that the Auditor General for Wales states is not meeting its potential. He said, and I quote,

'aspects of the way the fund has been managed at national, regional and project levels have limited its potential to date. There is little evidence of successful projects yet being mainstreamed and funded as part of public bodies' core service delivery.'

So it shows that, yes, once again, this Welsh Government is pinning its hopes on the fund. The integration of health and care shouldn't still be reliant on pilot projects; social care should not be treated as the junior partner in this deal. And once again, vast sums have been pumped into secondary care, into the NHS black hole. But unless we address the issues in social care and provide the necessary funding, our waiting lists will continue to grow, as beds continue to fill up with patients needing social care and not medical care. So, I urge the finance Minister to rethink and provide greater funding for social care. Diolch yn fawr.