Thank you very much, Deputy Llywydd. Our motion this afternoon calls on the Welsh Government to publish an emergency action plan to tackle the cost-of-living crisis that is hitting families in Wales. It's a crisis affecting households across the UK, but Wales will be and is being hit hardest by the economic storm and the huge social damage that will emerge from it in light of the fact that Wales has the highest level of relative poverty and the highest level of child poverty compared to all other regions of the UK. One in four people in Wales is living in poverty. The people of Wales, Deputy Llywydd, are in the eye of this storm. 

Plaid Cymru has rehearsed and re-rehearsed the frightening and disgraceful statistics on the levels of poverty and its impact on Welsh families time and time again in this Chamber. When we had a debate on the cost of living and debt before Christmas, I noted how the number of households who were having difficulty in paying for everyday goods corresponded to the number of households in the whole of Swansea, and that figure is only increasing, with the Bevan Foundation reporting that almost 40 per cent of Welsh households can't pay for anything beyond the essentials of life. It now appears that it won't be possible for too many people, even, to afford that, having to choose between heating or eating, in Wales in the twenty-first century. 

The facts are well known to us all and, now, there's a large body of evidence and research from all sorts of organisations that confirms the predictions and the warnings. The new report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on poverty confirms that it's families in Wales who will suffer the greatest hardship in light of the cost-of-living crisis. And the picture is still deteriorating as fuel prices shoot up to an entirely unaffordable level for too many people, and are likely to remain at that high level for a long period of time; as the level of inflation increases to the highest level for a decade, and the expectation that it'll go even higher; as the cost of living is at its highest for a period of 30 years; as wages on average are stagnating, but are falling for those on the lowest income levels; as household debts increase; as national insurance increases; and we have discussed many times how the disgraceful decision of the Conservative Government in Westminster to cut that £20 increase to universal credit has been a disaster for Welsh households. I'm sure that many of you will have heard heartbreaking stories from families in your own communities who have had difficulty in making ends meet. The message I hear very often is, 'I would want to see them trying to live as we have to live.'

Yes, many of the powers needed to safeguard the people of Wales from this looming crisis sit with the UK Government. I know that Welsh Government Ministers have been urging them to take action, but that the situation of the people of Wales is ignored by Westminster. What Plaid Cymru is calling for today is a new approach by the Welsh Government, and a clear recognition that the critical situation we're facing is one that we haven't experienced for decades, and that its impacts will scar Welsh communities not just today and tomorrow, but way into the future too, and that therefore we need urgent action. 

Some measures have already been included in the co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru, such as extending free school meals to all primary school pupils, and extending free childcare to all children from two years old, but there is still more that could be done, more that the Welsh Government could provide. Having a summit to analyse the evidence and to propose possible policy solutions to the cost-of-living crisis would be a first step that could generate a cross-governmental strategy that could tackle the crisis in the short term and the medium term.