Can I first of all register my support for all RCN members and the way they voted? Nobody wants to see industrial action taking place, and that includes, more than everyone, the nurses themselves. But the fact that this ballot took place in the first place tells us all we need to know about how nurses feel. Now, in driving a decade and more of public service cuts and real-time cuts to nurses' pay, the UK Government created a crisis. We can recruit into nursing, because, thankfully, we have enough people who care, but we can't hold on to nurses, because they feel undervalued. And whilst that's not all about financial rewards—we're still waiting for the extension of section 25B of the safe staffing levels legislation, for example—we simply have to show, through nurses' pay packets, that they really are valued. So, the UK Conservative Government should not have created this crisis; they should have undone the damage they themselves caused. And the Labour Welsh Government should have taken the opportunity, if not when the sun was shining—because it hasn't shone for some time—but at least before it disappeared behind the darkest of dark economic clouds we now face, to address the cuts in pay that have built up over time, and those other elements that have contributed to the unsustainability of nursing in Wales.

Now, pay, as I say, is just the tip of the iceberg—there are so many issues that need to be addressed—but nurses have taken a pay cut for the last 10 years. I understand that the Minister is still refusing to meet and negotiate pay with the RCN, but, I'm sorry, the need to negotiate has to be non-negotiable. Now, if Scotland can take the first step to prioritising their nurses by increasing their pay there by 7 per cent, why can't we? I agree entirely with the Minister that the Conservatives in UK Government have to take the blame for driving those cuts in public services, but there are actions that Labour can take here in Wales. When are we going to take the action that the Scottish Government have taken in Scotland?