Thank you, Presiding Officer. We have four great national institutions, the National Museum Wales, the National Library of Wales, Cadw and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, acting as custodians for our rich heritage and culture. Together they preserve evidence of the entire span of human activity in Wales, from the tiny fragments of bone that attest to the presence of humans in Wales more than 200,000 years ago, through the greatest monuments of architecture, literature and art, to the books and ordinary objects of today that will become the treasures of the future.

As a nation, we should be immensely proud of these institutions. They not only guard our cultural heritage, but also make it accessible and enjoyable for our own citizens and for visitors from across the world. These institutions are fundamental to our nation’s identity, so we must respond to the challenges that they already face and help them become more successful, more resilient and, ultimately, more sustainable in the future.

UK Government austerity has stretched heritage sector budgets over the last few years, and a recent Institute for Fiscal Studies report warns of increasing pressures to come. We have done everything possible to protect our national institutions from the worst of these cuts, yet a fundamental question still remains: how can we, working in genuine partnership, improve services, provide sufficient capital investment and ensure that Wales still has vibrant cultural and heritage institutions when the competition for central resources is more challenging than ever before?

There are four pressing issues that we must address if we are going to secure a viable future for the whole heritage sector. First, we have to find new ways for our heritage and cultural institutions to innovate and be ambitious about the role they play in our national life. We need them to work together to form a compelling vision of that future. Institutional boundaries should be no barrier to the quality of service offered, whether that service is to visitors, our own communities or indeed the heritage assets themselves.

Second, we have to increase the number of people using our heritage and cultural institutions. This will mean setting stretching targets for visitor numbers and developing novel ways to attract new audiences. We have to accelerate our work to widen access to arts and culture for groups traditionally excluded from it. We have a proud record of widening access and engaging more people in cultural activities by supporting free admission to our national museums. I'd like our national heritage institutions to lead the way in social tourism for example, and play a bigger role in tackling the intergenerational gap. We know we can achieve amazing results when we set the bar high. Cadw, for instance, has had its most successful year ever in terms of admissions numbers and, as a consequence, generating commercial income. This has been achieved by restructuring itself to maximise the opportunities presented from managing some of Wales’s most iconic visitor attractions. It has run several award-winning marketing campaigns, invested in major improvements to the visitor experience, doubled its events programme and, in doing so, helped open up the monuments to families and younger people in a way it has never done before.

Third, we need to market and promote our cultural and heritage institutions more vigorously and effectively. Our national institutions will need to have clearer, more powerful and more engaging brands and offers if they are to be noticed in a world where competition for people’s time and attention is growing ever fiercer.

The final challenge involves people. The skills, passion and expertise of people working in our institutions bring them to life just as much as the cultural assets that they contain. We need to give greater respect and recognition to these people and offer them greater opportunities to develop their careers in the field. The skills required to care for our heritage are precious and we need to retain our specialists to conserve and interpret our inheritance for future generations.

I don’t have all of the answers, but of one thing, I am absolutely certain: our national heritage institutions will be stronger if they work together, sharing their experience and expertise to find innovative pathways to a more secure and sustainable future. This will require institutions to collaborate and work together in new ways and perhaps, where necessary, pool resources. I know this is contentious, but it is possible to do without compromising the unique identities and independence of our institutions.

I believe that part of the answer lies in the creation of a new body, which we have provisionally called Historic Wales. I am convinced that we have here a real opportunity to bring a sharper focus and clearer identity to the commercial work of our national institutions. Bringing their commercial functions together will not undermine the independence or identity of the individual institutions, rather it will enable them to market their world-class cultural assets more effectively to the people of Wales, Britain and the world. A truly joined-up commercial approach amongst our national institutions will give them the ability to become financially resilient and engage further with the public. That is why, in September, I published the report ‘Investing in the future to protect the past’. The report, chaired by Baroness Randerson, sets out options for giving a stronger, unified identity to Wales’s national heritage institutions. The options considered in the report range from improved partnership working to more radical solutions, such as the creation of a new charity or the merger of organisations.

The report was not the start of the process. As part of the development of the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2016, the future delivery of public historic environment services was considered, including the amalgamation of Cadw and the royal commission. We have reviewed the views expressed at that time, many of which concluded that structural change was timely and necessary.

The next step is to prepare the detailed business cases and analysis required to test the viability of the options in Baroness Randerson’s report. That is why, at the beginning of September, I established a steering group made up of senior management from the national museum, the national library, Cadw and the royal commission, and, of course, trade union representatives. It is chaired by Justin Albert of the National Trust. I have asked the steering group to examine options critically and to determine how Historic Wales can best be constituted so that our national heritage and cultural institutions can harness their collective expertise and resources to best effect. I have asked the group to give me its initial advice in January. This advice will put me in a better position to develop a detailed plan for Historic Wales, which, as I have said repeatedly, will be subject to public consultation in due course.

I don’t underestimate the challenge ahead and I want to work with the heritage sector to make Historic Wales, in whatever form it is constituted, a dynamic and innovative entity that can help Wales sell itself to the world. I am, therefore, willing to listen and engage with anybody who wants to contribute constructively to the developing vision for Historic Wales. However, as I have said before, the status quo is no longer an option. This is no time for the short-term protection of empires: the stakes are simply too high. We must not fall into the trap of knowing the value of what we have, but wilfully ignoring the tough choices that need to be made to protect it.