It's a pleasure to take part in such an important debate. It's what's widely considered as one of the highlights of the Welsh political calendar.

Four weeks ago, I was highly critical of the impact this budget would have on our health and care services. During those four weeks, the situation has become much clearer. The situation facing health and social care is bleak, and the impact this budget will have on the provision of health and social care is minimal at best. I won't regurgitate my arguments on the real living wage—I've spoken about it quite a lot—but it has become clear that I am not the only one to voice concerns. The social care fair work forum state that the real living wage won't be sufficient to support, retain or recruit care workers. The Trades Union Congress was more damning. They said £9.90 an hour was too low and that the settlement fails to include other factors that make up a fair pay reward. As the National Care Forum point out, staff shortages are already placing significant pressures on social care services, and they expect the situation to worsen over the coming months.

This budget was an ideal opportunity to address the staffing shortages with an ambitious deal for staff, yet Welsh Government opted to do the bare minimum. They could have chosen to align social care with NHS pay scales, a move that would cost around £54 million by the Welsh Government's own estimates. Indeed, they would rather go for the cheap option, according to many in the sector, which will do little to improve a worsening crisis. With the savings made, they decided to spend £10 million on preparing the ground to eliminate private profit from the childcare sector. That should tell you all you need to know about this Government and their budget. Rather than rewarding and valuing our hardworking care staff, they would prefer to spend public money on pursuing an ideological vendetta against the private sector—a private sector that provide over three quarters of the care in Wales. [Interruption.] Yes, indeed.