May I, first of all, thank the Minister for finance and the Government for bringing this debate before the Senedd? I will be contributing to this debate on behalf of the Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport and International Relations Committee. Considering the committee's wide remit, I will focus on the main points that we have noted following our scrutiny of the budget.

Since the committee was established in June of last year, the committee's remit has been extended to include international relations. And although the funding allocated to this work stream is relatively small, at around £8 million in total, it is important work. Following Brexit, Wales's role on the international stage is more important now than ever before. Unfortunately, we as a committee were disappointed with the level of information shared with us on this subject. I refer specifically to the lack of narrative in the budget document and with regard to the information shared with the committee as written evidence. This made our scrutiny work that much more difficult. Transparency is exceptionally important for our scrutiny as Members, and therefore we urge the Government to note this and to ensure that it is more open and provides much more information next year.

Turning to sport, in its written evidence to the committee, the Government said:

'Sport can be the nation's most effective preventative health tool but greater cross-sector prioritisation is needed to create the long-term sustainable shifts in participation.'

Despite this convincing message, it isn't obvious in the financial settlement for sport. A pitiful increase of 1 per cent in revenue funding and a decrease of 7 per cent in capital budgets is the allocation for sport. 'Nid wy’n gofyn bywyd moethus'—'I don’t ask for a life of luxury, gold and pearls', so says one of our nation's most famous hymns. We're not asking for all of the Government's resources and funding, but what we would like to know is what actions justify the aforementioned statement. If there is expenditure in other departments, for example, then it is important that the Government says so to justify this important narrative as we restore our nation's health following the pandemic, hopefully.

Next, I'd like to refer to concerns regarding cuts to the capital budgets of the national library and national museum. Capital funding for these institutions will fall by 32 and 33 per cent respectively in the next financial year. As outlined in the tailored review of the national library, it is estimated that up to £26 million in capital funding will be required to undertake maintenance and essential improvements to the library. These institutions are two of our nation's great treasures. We as a committee are concerned that the longer it takes to complete capital works, the longer some of our nation's most important collections will be at risk. So, 'the rougher the stone, the stronger the wall' is our message to the Government. We urge you to outline how you will provide the necessary resources to the two organisations to ensure that they can continue to safeguard our nation's treasures.

To conclude, Dirprwy Lywydd, in terms of the Welsh language, we very much welcome, as a committee, the additional funding for the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol. However, we are of the view that the best way to ensure that children truly pick up the language, thereby leaving school fluent in Welsh, is through being immersed in the language from a very early age. This means significant investment in early years provision and language transmission. To this end, it is important that the Government explains the implications in terms of resources to reach the target of opening 60 additional cylchoedd meithrin during this Senedd term. We shall see, after the results of the recent census are published, how much work remains to do to reach the 2050 target. Thank you very much.