Firstly I want to recognise the valuable work of the committee in shining a light on rural poverty, and thank those organisations that came to present evidence.

Too often poverty in the countryside has been invisible to Government, to the extent that no information has been collected on what it costs to deliver public services in rural areas in comparison to urban ones.

The WLGA deserve recognition for their willingness to come back to the committee with this information, but clearly this is something simple that the Welsh Assembly Government should have to hand, through the Wales Rural Observatory.

I welcome that the Minister has accepted the majority of the Committee’s recommendations, but I am surprised by some of her rejections.

Public transport in rural areas is in urgent need of joined-up services – from small community busses through to rail travel… particularly for older people, and there is compelling evidence of the value of services like ‘dial-a-bus’ in preventing these people being isolated.

This is a real problem for the substantial number of older people in rural areas who don’t have access to a car, and I find it surprising that the Minster has chosen to reject recommendation 5, that would have provided the joined-up access to public transport services that rural areas need so badly.

I am also not convinced of the reasons behind the Minister’s rejection of recommendation 10 – extending free cash machine services in rural post offices through the development fund – Post offices have had a whole range of their services stripped away in recent years, and far too many branches are under the threat of closure, and I don’t believe the Welsh Assembly Government’s current plans go nearly far enough, especially when so many rural post offices are planned to be shut down.

In my own village of Cilcain, it’s a 7 mile journey to the nearest cash machine in Mold, and there are many local shops and businesses nearby that won’t accept payment by card because of the service charges.

Rural communities need access to cash, the rural post office network desperately needs the business – and the Assembly Government’s current plans are progressing far too slowly to be acceptable.

I also want to touch on the issue of affordable housing - the Minister has partially accepted the Committee’s recommendation in her response.

She has said that most key-workers – the teachers, nurses and firemen - in Wales don’t have a problem finding a home, but I would say that the distances involved are often excessive – I know of nurses having to travel 40 and 50 miles to work, and this is putting a significant financial burden in travel costs, along with the environmental impact.

Clearly under the current economic conditions, there needs to be flexibility about how affordable housing is provided in the future, but this remains one of the single most important issues facing those people who live and work in the countryside… and this has been an issue as long as I have been in this Assembly.

Finally, I would like to say – that something that became more apparent, as the committee took evidence and got a better understanding of the particular needs of rural areas, and put forward its recommendations, was just how far the Assembly Government has yet to go in tackling rural poverty, and I don’t believe this point has been lost on the Minister.