This debate would really be improved if we had alternative proposals, even if only at the level of ministerial budgets, from the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru. I welcome what Peter Fox said about producing one next year. Just a piece of advice: it has to balance, you can't keep on adding money in the expenditure column, taking money off the income column and call that a budget. So, I'm sure Peter won't do that, and I hope he'll take it up with his colleagues to explain to them that you can't do that.

There are alternatives to the Welsh budget in terms of priorities. I would, for example, increase support for education, training and university innovation, and reduce expenditure on attracting inward investment. Provide the research capacity in the universities, provide a highly skilled workforce and the investors will come.

Also, investing in early years education remains one of the most powerful levers to tackle inequality and invest in our future generations, so no-one is left behind. Far too many children start nursery school at three a year behind developmentally than the average, and two years behind the most advanced. That is a serious problem. How are they going to catch up during their time in primary education? You're asking, in some cases, over seven years, to make up two years. It's incredibly important that we make sure that children don't start behind.

If you have to bribe a company to bring a branch factory here, they do not want to come. I could spend the rest of my contribution listing companies who came, did not provide the jobs in their prospectus and then left. I will just mention the best known example: LG.

I will be supporting the budget, but the key question is: what will be achieved by the additional income and expenditure? I welcome the announcement by the UK Government of a multi-year budget settlement, and I'm pleased to see that the Welsh Government took the opportunity of a three-year spending review to give funding certainty to organisations, providing provisional allocations for 2023-24 and 2024-25. This is something I, and many others in this Chamber, have been calling for for a long time. Each year, many third sector employees get an end-of-December redundancy notice because of uncertainty of funding past 31 March. I hope this three-year funding will correct that.

I welcome the over-commitment of capital expenditure, which should avoid capital underspend as schemes slip during the year, and if they do not, the borrowing capacity can be used. I'm sure that people across the Chamber with senior local government experience have noticed how little support capital receipts give to the capital expenditure. It's easy to spend money; the challenge of Government, at every level, is to spend it beneficially and wisely.

I'm disappointed that the Welsh Government has not used the five Es. Effectiveness: was the expenditure effective in the previous year, and did it achieve what was required? Efficiency: were resources used efficiently last year, and if not, what is going to be done to ensure efficient use of resources this year? Equality: is the budget expenditure fair to all groups? Equity: is the budget fair to all of Wales, not just in one year, but over several years? And, environment: what is the expected effect of the budget on carbon and biodiversity? Whilst the future generations Act deals with the last one, the first four need addressing.

With the universal provision of free school meals in state primary schools—I emphasise 'state' primary schools—the use of free school meals as an indicator of additional educational funding will disappear. What is going to be used instead?

Turning to efficiency, the health service just needs to come into the twenty-first century. Prescriptions are printed, signed and hand delivered. Why don't we have e-prescribing? Why can't they be filled on an online form with an online signature and then sent to the relevant pharmacists? Fax machines are still used in the health service, including at a general practice that I contacted today, and I phoned the wrong number because the number on there was their fax machine. I'm not used to seeing fax machines on telephone numbers any more. They've got to come into the twenty-first century. I don't think I've seen a fax machine in the last 20 years and certainly not since I've been here. In 11 years I haven't seen a fax machine anywhere, but the health boards seem to keep on using them.

What do health boards propose will increase energy efficiency? With health boards getting extra money, how are they going to improve productivity in hospitals? How is the hospital at home going to be developed—something I've spoken in favour of previously? A prediction that I hope is wrong: the health boards will get the increase, and the share given to primary health will again decrease. The Welsh Government have created large organisations, such as Natural Resources Wales, Betsi Cadwaladr and the Welsh ambulance service. At what point is it decided they are not working and need breaking up into smaller units?

Finally, we need to solve the problem of operational management in the public sector to improve efficiency and effectiveness. We need to concentrate on outcomes. The money we spend is public money that has been paid in taxes at different levels by people. We have a duty to them to spend it wisely and fairly, and we have a duty to them to avoid being wasteful in anything that we do. So, I will be supporting this budget, and I hope it gets put past.