Just a few brief comments about the process maybe, initially. I think we're all looking forward to the budget returning to its normal timetable of eight sitting weeks of scrutiny. We haven't had that for a long time, and I think these condensed periods of scrutiny really don't help. And I'd make the point again: ministerial responses to committee reports on the budgets are arriving late in the day. I think the environment committee had ours 24 hours ago. It's an improvement on last year, where some of those responses came after the final budget vote, but we really do need to get back to a more level keel on this, I think, because it really isn't the way that things should be happening. And I know some of it is driven by UK Government timetables, and it's good that we can have a multi-year settlement for the first time in a long, long time this year, and let's hope that we don't row back from that position in future.

I welcome the fact that the Welsh Government is pressing the UK Government for greater flexibility, for example, around carrying over funding from one financial year to another, greater powers as well around borrowing. Anything we can do that gives Wales greater agility to respond to the challenges we face must be welcome, and I would hope that our colleagues on the Conservative benches will also take that message back to the UK Government as well.

I welcome the use proposed in this budget of the Welsh Government's borrowing powers. I also welcome greater use of reserves in the coming year and the over-programming of capital plans. It's high time that we made Welsh money work as hard as possible in the face of the challenges that we have before us. But, with that, of course, we would therefore expect more regular updates from the Government and greater scrutiny as well from the Finance Committee to make sure that we keep an eye on the funding contained in the Welsh reserve, given that the squeeze is going to be greater on those fundings.

It is frustrating that the money that should be coming to Wales is being denied to us by the UK Government, I'm afraid. We've heard a number of times that if funding to Wales had kept pace with inflation, we'd be talking about at least £3 billion more today in this budget. HS2 funding, many millions more should be available to us, as well as what we've already heard in relation to being short-changed on what was EU funding. We're not accusing the Tories of talking Wales down; we are actually accusing the Tories of holding Wales down by denying us money that is, frankly, being given to other devolved administrations in the UK, and all we want is parity in that respect. But we are where we are.

Now, Plaid Cymru outlined our proposals for our programme of government in our manifesto last year, fully costed, independently verified, so this isn't the budget necessarily that we would have tabled here today, but we can, as a party, be hugely proud that many of our policies—some, in fact, rejected by the Government in the past—now sit at the heart of this budget.