Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:43 pm on 28 September 2016.
Thank you very much, Llywydd. It’s very pleasant to participate in this debate and also to be able to welcome Bethan in her innovative role as Chair of the culture committee that operates in an innovative way, as we’ve already heard, that is this communication. Given that communication is central to the work of this committee, our communication is also innovative, as Bethan has just set out, and is highlighted in the way in which we’ve been meeting and communicating with the public over the summer. Of course, that kind of communication in scrutinising the way in which our media communicates messages about this place and about Wales in the British context will also be an integral part of the new brief of this committee.
I was going to ask you about historic Wales, as this issue has been raised over the past few days. There was some mention in passing of Historic Wales in the last committee meeting, and the Cabinet Secretary alluded to what was about to take place. Of course, we have received this written statement today, but I think that there’s quite a bit of concern about this, and a number of people are concerned about what all of this is going to mean for our national museum, for example, not forgetting Cadw and our other national institutions. I believe that the subject deserves a deeper level of scrutiny than has been possible to date, and, as I said in this Chamber yesterday afternoon, we would wish to have a full debate in Government time on this important issue. People at the grass roots are very concerned and I believe that we should air these issues openly. So, I would ask for a full debate in Government time in this Chamber on Historic Wales. Following on what Suzy’s just said, we would expect as a committee to be able to scrutinise this issue, because there’s a great deal of unease, and I think we need to reflect that unease in our activities in this place.
Otherwise, I will just close by agreeing with you that there will be some cross-cutting issues that will cut across the remit of more than one committee, and of course, we’ll be looking at the Welsh language in this committee, but, bearing in mind that the Government and all of us will be contributing to this target of a million Welsh speakers by halfway through this century—of course, partially, the majority of the work will be undertaken in the education sector—and thinking of our scrutiny work as a committee, then we will have to look at how we’re going to achieve that outcome. So, we will also have to work with the education committee in that regard. Thank you for a wonderful report and also for mature and innovative leadership.