Part of 2. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:14 pm on 14 June 2016.
Thank you. I’m very pleased to hear that, but your manifesto did set a target of a million speakers by 2050—I’m sure that you agree with that, and that is an excellent thing, and I congratulate you on setting such a target, which means that, 34 years hence, we will have doubled the number of Welsh speakers that we have at present, but how are you going to proceed to do that, what are the action points that you’ll be taking, and on what exactly will you be focusing, and what is the timetable for that action? Would you agree with me that it appears to the public that the political ambition does not exist, bearing in mind that you have now moved the Welsh language out of the Cabinet? There is a Minister with responsibility for the Welsh language; I don’t doubt his commitment and his passion for the Welsh language, but he’s not centrally part of the Cabinet by now, and so one can be rather sceptical about this ambition by now. Do you agree with me about that, and how are you going to progress matters? How can you convince me that the Welsh language is a priority for this Government?