Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Our heritage and culture belong to us all, and it gives me enormous pleasure to speak to you today about the vital work that is being undertaken to improve access to our very special monuments and here in Wales. Our spectacular natural landscapes and our world-class sites have more than contributed to the record number of visitors over recent...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: I'm very grateful for that further question. It will be clear to those following this exchange that there is no support in this Chamber for the decision that has been taken in terms of the awarding of this particular opportunity to broadcast. It is significantly important, as you pointed out from your own experience, that there should be an opportunity for people to openly follow the coverage...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: I'm afraid I can't follow that line of argument. Our relationship with S4C, as Welsh Government, is specifically directed at supporting their activities in developing community rugby. And clearly, there is a close link between the community rugby and the possibility of viewers in Wales being able to follow the Pro14 regional rugby games. I have had meetings recently with the Welsh Rugby...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: As the Member knows—and I'm very grateful to him for expressing his concerns on behalf of the Scarlets and, indeed, all rugby followers in Wales, but it particularly affects his constituency—the Pro14 competition is run by a body called Celtic Rugby UK Limited, which is a private company limited by shares, and it includes among its owners the Irish Rugby Football Union, the Welsh Rugby...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: The Welsh Government recognises that this is a commercial decision, but the Government is deeply concerned about this decision that there will be no free-to-air television coverage of regional rugby in the English language from next season. We are still awaiting the outcome of further negotiations that affect the S4C coverage in the Welsh language and, of course, the red button that would...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Well, I can hardly say 'no' to you with you sitting there. [Laughter.] We are long-standing friends, obviously, as well as neighbours. But, seriously, I have been trying to visit as many of these sites as possible. I was in Cwmcarn recently, where I saw how the development of the relationship between the forestry, which has had serious problems, and the paths and the way the local authority...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Well, tourism, of course, is one of the foundation industries noted in the economic plan. We as a Government are not responsible for decisions taken by local authorities on their budgets, but I do think that it would be very constructive if local authorities were to do what I had an opportunity to participate in in Carmarthenshire very recently, namely to have a lengthy and detailed...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: In order to improve tourism, we as a Government, of course, invest across Wales. In 2017, in the South Wales West region of Wales, which the Member represents, this included visitor car and coach parking at Rhossili; significant improvements to Fairyhill hotel, which I had an opportunity to visit relatively recently and to see the impact of those improvements on the visitor offer in being...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: If I may respond, clearly, if opposition parties win this debate by rejecting the reasonable amendments today, the Government will consider how we respond to the Assembly’s decision. So, it’s not true to say that we wouldn’t consider any decisions to look at this further. But that isn’t the Government’s stance at the moment.
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: He's sitting here. [Laughter.]
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Thank you very much, Llywydd. It's a pleasure to contribute to a debate on broadcasting, because it's been a pleasure of mine over many years to be responsible for legislating on broadcasting in Westminster. And I want to make it entirely clear that I remain of the view, personally, and as a Minister, given my experience over the past four or five months, that this isn't the time to start to...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: I wonder whether the Member will take an intervention for one moment.
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Just to give you an assurance, from the Government's point of view, we will be tabling a general debate on communications, with a particular view on the report on S4C, when that is timely, once we've received a copy of that report that we're still awaiting.
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Formally. Thank you, Llywydd.
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: I am in the process of beginning further discussions on the coming two years of budgets, but the proof is in the eating, so to speak, or in this case in the nominations received by our various campaigns and, indeed, the awards that have come the way of Visit Wales—for the nature of their campaigns and the way that they generate a response. Thematic years is but one part of that, another...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Thank you very much for that question, which I'm replying to as tourism, as you know, falls within my responsibility. We believe we have evidence to show that our themed marketing is proving extremely successful. The Year of Adventure generated an additional £370 million in 2016. The Year of Legends is also showing promising results, with record-breaking summer visitors to Cadw and...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Thank you for that. Signage, above all, has to be clear, has to be intelligible, and has to not cause the person observing the signage, especially if that person is driving, to be interrupted in the proper work that that person has to do. But we now have a new way of describing how visitors travel through Wales, and this is called the Welsh way. This is not the Welsh way of life; this is...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: I do have some difficulty with the word 'indigenous', or otherwise I would have to speak Brythonic in this place. But to be serious, the heritage of place names is key, and the statutory list is part of the Government strategy for that. It was published in May 2017, and it is kept by the commission on ancient monuments, which is a very important commission in my view, and will continue to...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Thank you very much. As the responsible Minister, my first response is that place names, as every other use of national and community languages, are a key part of creating a sense of place for citizens and visitors to Wales, as in any other country, and Visit Wales encourages tourism businesses to retain and use Welsh names for their businesses.
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Well, we will in any way—. I haven't discussed this issue with the relevant clubs, but within any particular needs that the individual football and rugby clubs have, we would be very willing to support further shared spaces. The important thing is that the shared spaces don't suffer from overuse, and this is a key issue that we have to address, about what is happening at the Liberty, what...
