Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:06 pm on 14 June 2016.
Thank you very much to Sian Gwenllian for those comments. Thank you for the welcome that she has given to the report. Of course, I do agree that to strengthen the rights of those people who use services through the medium of Welsh does raise their confidence in doing so. What the report says is that the greatest challenge is to create situations where people use the language when they enter those services, and by doing that it’s about being clear to the people who provide those services that the skills that they have to be able to do things through the medium of Welsh are skills that we appreciate and are skills that will be important to them when they create their own futures.
I’m sure, when I’ve been speaking to young people, people who receive their education through the medium of Welsh, that it’s important to persuade them that the fact that they can speak Welsh is something that they can sell in the workplace. It’s something, not just a subject that they consider or learn, but a general skill that they can implement and use in the workplace here in Wales.
The report does draw attention to what has happened in Gwynedd and it draws attention to Ceredigion and Carmarthen where things that follow the leader, Gwynedd, are in place already. And it also says—and it’s important to note this—that the situation across Wales is not the same. There will be things that work in Carmarthen that won’t work in the same way, for example, in Torfaen. The report states that clearly.
Wrth gwrs, mae heriau yn yr argymhellion. Mae cadeirydd y gweithgor yn gwneud hynny'n glir yn ei gyflwyniad ei hun, pan ddywed bod yr argymhellion yn heriol. Ond, diben rhoi'r adroddiad ar gael i'r cyhoedd heddiw, gwahodd sylwadau arno gan awdurdodau lleol ledled Cymru a'r bobl hynny sy'n gweithio gydag awdurdodau lleol a'r bobl hynny sy'n defnyddio gwasanaethau awdurdodau lleol, yw ein helpu ni i nodi'r heriau hynny, i feddwl am ffyrdd y gallwn ymateb iddynt ac yna rhoi ymateb y Llywodraeth i'r adroddiad, a fydd yn dilyn yn yr hydref, wedi ei gyfoethogi gan yr amrywiaeth ehangach honno o gyfraniadau.