Thank you for this very important statement. I'd like to declare that I am a councillor on RCT council, and I was part of the working group that looked at this. I was pleased to hear Sioned mention Elyn Stephens. She was extremely brave, as a young woman, coming into a council and starting to talk about periods. You should have seen the shock on the face of the councillors and they felt uncomfortable, but if you change the word 'period' for 'going to the toilet' and talk about toilet paper, which is exactly what Elyn did, then people start to listen. I think that's the thing here—if we were talking about toilet paper, it's a no brainer, but because it doesn't affect everybody then we're not having that same discussion. I would imagine that if we were having a debate on toilet roll, this Chamber would be full, because this is an issue that's important to men and women—each and every one of us—and that's what's important in terms of having this discussion.

Education is crucially important, not just for girls and young women, so that they understand what's happening to their bodies, but to those young men who will be friends and employers in the future, because that's very often where we can provide the greatest support. In my previous role, I was given training in terms of the menopause. There was a policy in National Museum Wales to raise awareness of the menopause across the board, and we had menopause champions. It's useful for me—I haven't got to that age yet, but I learned so much, and also in terms of how to manage people who are going through the menopause. It's extremely important that we are open about these issues.

I think the main thing that's a challenge to us all are the points that have already been raised in terms of inconsistency—the inconsistency in terms of accessing products in schools, the right even to go to the toilet that people have to ask permission for now, and this idea that there is a power dynamic where teachers can prevent you from going to the toilet in case somebody does something. Well, people were throwing wet toilet paper onto the ceiling when I was at school. It's entirely absurd. Although the products are available now, we still hear stories about girls bleeding through their clothing because they haven't been given that right to go to the toilet at times. There are inconsistencies. We need to discuss this so that it isn't a problem in contemporary Wales.

This is a fundamental right, it's a matter of dignity, we are all duty bound here to continue to talk about this. I'm extremely proud of Elyn Stephens, when she raised this, because she was challenged and told that it wasn't a problem and that there were plenty of products available. That isn't true. There is still more to be done, and I'm very proud to see this plan in place and to work across parties to ensure this issue of dignity on something that is entirely natural.