Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I want to say at the start that we absolutely recognise why so many nurses have voted for industrial action for the first time in the RCN's history. We believe that nurses, together with other hard-working NHS and public sector workers, should be fairly awarded for their work. Nurses, healthcare professionals, cleaners, porters, paramedics and many other professions that make up the NHS staff are on the same NHS terms and conditions as their colleagues across the UK—the 'Agenda for Change' contracts. So, Members should be aware that singling out one group of staff or prioritising one group over another when it comes to pay has significant consequences. All of our NHS staff are vitally important, and without them—all of them—we couldn't provide NHS services.

Now, we understand the concerns and anger of our workforce about how their standards of living are being eroded, but, before I turn to finances and financing, I want to cover the process that I followed this year in making the pay award. Now, as in previous years, we asked the independent pay review bodies to provide their independent advice, and when we asked for that advice, we specifically asked them to consider the cost-of-living crisis. The pay review body reviews evidence from all parties, including Government, trade unions and employers, prior to making independent recommendations. It's a mechanism that we and trade unions have agreed to follow when it comes to pay negotiations for NHS workers on 'Agenda for Change' contracts. So, RCN are part of the 'Agenda for Change' contractual negotiations. So, after careful consideration, I accepted their recommendations, and I also agreed to pay the £1,400 uplift on top of the temporary real living wage uplift, which I announced in March 2022, which means that the lowest paid NHS staff will see that substantive salary increase by 10.8 per cent.

Before announcing the pay award, I met with trade union colleagues to discuss the current financial pressures and explained that we could not increase the pay award without making extremely difficult decisions about cuts to other areas of the health budget, which would, inevitably, cut the services available to the public and make it even harder to clear the waiting lists. Now, I greatly value the regular contact that I have trade unions, and whilst these are not pay negotiations—I've just explained the process that we use for that—they are about issues that greatly impact on the NHS workforce, such as staff welfare and well-being, and I look forward to my next meeting with the NHS Wales business committee trade unions, which includes the RCN, on Monday.

Llywydd, I am saddened that, in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, we are unable to give nurses, our NHS staff and our wider public sector staff an inflation-matching pay award, because our funding settlement falls far short of what is needed to meet these significant pressures that they and we face. Last week, the Chancellor presented his autumn statement, and we believe this was a missed opportunity to provide nurses, NHS staff and public sector workers with a pay rise. Now, there was some additional funding for Wales—£1.2 billion over the next two years. That's for the whole of everything we do in Government—two years—but this falls far short of what's needed to fill the holes in our budget, let alone meet the pay calls being made by staff and unions in all parts of the public sector. And there was worse news for this year. There is no extra funding for this year, despite the huge inflationary pressures, and this Plaid Cymru motion calls for us to use every lever possible to give nurses a pay rise. We've heard suggestions that we should use reserves or unallocated funds. Well, I'm afraid the figures we've heard quoted this week, in terms of unallocated funds, are very out of date. You're using June figures. That was before we knew about the £207 million extra bill for energy just for the NHS. So, every penny of our budget is needed to meet the inflationary pressures on public services.