6. Debate on the Report of the Special Purpose Committee on Senedd Reform — Reforming our Senedd: A stronger voice for the people of Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:06 pm on 8 June 2022.

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Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 6:06, 8 June 2022

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. It's a pleasure to follow the balanced and constructive comments of the Counsel General, but can I also thank every Member who's contributed today, regardless of the different views and different opinions? It has been a lively—argumentative at times and passionate at all times—debate, and I think that's what this place is for. I think the reforms we're talking about today, we'll probably see more of those delivered, should we choose to take them forward.

The task we were set I've described previously, Dirprwy Lywydd, as being both divinely simple and devilishly complex. The divinely simple thing is coming up with a utopian plan of what we can take forward; the devilishly complex bit is actually getting something that would command a supermajority within this Senedd, which, as the leader of Plaid Cymru has pointed out, was set out in the Wales Act 2017, which gave us the power to do exactly this—not subject to a referendum and so on, but for us to do the jobs that we are paid to do: to measure, in our judgment, the balance of the interests of Wales and the people whom we are sent here to represent, and to make those hard, tough decisions.