Someone wrote to me this week: 'Nothing is getting better; everything is getting worse day by day. Even some of the handouts that I have received are just not making any difference. What will change for me and what promises can you make?' Well, it's extremely difficult, because, even looking at this budget, the questions that we are being asked are not going to be solved or addressed. There are some things, of course, that will be beneficial, but, overall, our hands are still tied. And I do hope that, whilst we are emphasising the problems because of the UK Government's prioritisations—and the wrong priorities, I would say, in terms of the UK Government—I hope those representations are being made now to the shadow Labour UK Government, because, obviously, they, if they are successful in the next general election, will be that UK Government, and we would need to see that being re-addressed here in Wales, so that we are able to take account here and be properly funded for some of the things that we are not at the moment. All those lies—and they were lies—during the Brexit campaign of how much funding would come to Wales—well, where is that money now, because certainly our communities are not benefiting from those promises that were made?

I would like to echo just some of the comments in terms of teachers' pay. Crucially, we know that teachers' pay is a contentious issue and that they are still not happy and are balloting at present. Well, there is money in the budget in terms of retention, with the recruit, recover and raise standards programme, which is of course welcome. But we know that we are losing teachers in the first five years in the profession. We know, and have been told consistently, that pay is a real issue, so how is this budget going to address that?

I also welcome the announcement around public transport. Is this going to be specifically for young people? We've seen that a barrier to getting to schools or extracurricular activities has been the cost of transport, so will some of this be allocated specifically to support our young people?

I am looking forward to looking in greater detail at the budget, but from glancing at those that have been released now, I see, in terms of culture and sport specifically, that there are some cuts to those budgets. I just wondered—. In terms of looking specifically there, that's quite a small proportion of the budget but makes a huge difference in terms of what those organisations are able to do. And following on from the theme of my colleague Rhun ap Iorwerth in terms of prevention, many of the sports and cultural facilities do have that well-being. So, tackling obesity, for instance, it's really crucial in terms of participation. For mental health, a number of other programmes—we've seen the waiting list for CAMHS and so on—but the benefit of some of the sports and cultural activities are equally felt. And I do worry to see those cuts, especially when we know, looking at the Arts Council of Wales's budget as well, we've been told consistently, as a culture committee, of that increase of costs in terms of maintaining the services that are currently there.

So, I would just like to see how have the decisions been measured against the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 and the well-being goals, all of those, because it's still very much, in my mind, a budget that is in silos rather than one that actually brings the future generations Act to life in terms of thinking, cross-Government, what impact certain cuts would then have on consequences, for instance, for health.

The other key thing to emphasise is obviously to welcome the free school meals roll-out and the continuation of that as part of our co-operation agreement. I mentioned that the budget is a sad one in many ways, because we are talking about helping people just be able to have their basic needs met—to be able to have a warm meal at least once a day; to be able to have a warm home. So, I think the fact that so much money has to be allocated with the discretionary assistance fund—yes, it's welcome, but, again, it's a very tragic reflection of our society. It shows that difficult decisions will be required, but, in terms of the money that is there, I do hope that we will be able to work together, so that it's not just responding to urgent need, but also investing in the future and prevention, because I believe that a more equal and fairer Wales is possible. I think this budget does have some element of that, but there is so much more that we need to be doing together and not just blame Westminster; there are decisions that can be taken here in Wales that need to be taken.