Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd. I'd like to thank Plaid Cymru for tabling this afternoon's debate on this vital subject and for the many excellent contributions across the Chamber setting out the stark challenges that we are facing. I think there's a strong consensus on the need for a comprehensive and affordable bus service. But as Huw Irranca rightly pointed out, the list of challenges is clear; the list of solutions is less clear.

I think there are four main forces at work here that lead us to where we are today, and then I'll come to the points raised in the debate and our next steps. The first, I think, is one recognised by the analysis in the roads review, that for 70 years, we as a country, over generations, over many Governments, have prioritised the private motor car instead of mass transit and giving good-quality public transport alternatives to people. When you look at successful public transport networks across the continent, they consistently spend more than we do, and have done for generations, on public transport. We're now starting from a legacy standpoint of that base lack of emphasis on public transport.

The second factor I think we're dealing with here is the impact of privatisation in the early 1980s. There is no doubt that the bus system going into COVID was extremely fragile. Over half of all the revenue of the private bus operators came from the Government. Delyth Jewell pointed out in her contribution the lessons to be learned from London. Well, the main lesson from London is not to privatise your bus service. London was the only part of the country that didn't deregulate its buses in the 1980s, and you can see the results of it. Buses are a public service, but they are run for profit.

And this is the third factor: COVID blew that model apart. I think that's our problem; a fragile model going into an existential crisis has tipped over the operating model. The Confederation of Passenger Transport say that passenger levels are consistently 15 per cent lower than pre pandemic, when they'd already been declining. This is not just a problem in Wales, this is a problem right across the world. I was listening to the BBC World Service in the wee small hours the other night, hearing about similar problems in Japan, where, in Tokyo, bus services are being withdrawn because passenger numbers have not returned since COVID. So, there is a global problem here with people having confidence to go back to mass transport.

The other thing, of course, COVID did was knock over the workforce that the bus industry relied upon. One of the consequences of privatisation is we have seen suppression of wages in the bus industry since privatisation. We've relied on an ageing workforce, many of whom decided not to return after COVID, and the problem that Sioned pointed out about buses not turning up on time is primarily a factor of staff shortages as a result of that workforce challenge.

So, those are the three main challenges I think we're dealing with. The fourth, which has really put the kibosh on on the whole thing, of course, has been austerity. As Huw Irranca-Davies pointed out, not a single penny was announced in last week's budget for public transport. We have dug deep into our financial budgets to support the bus industry; £150 million during COVID, without which, the bus industry would have gone bankrupt. It's worth noting that, in England, some 20 per cent of bus routes have disappeared. In Wales, 2 per cent have, because we have invested in the bus industry and stopped it from going to the wall—