Thank you, Llywydd. May I thank Plaid Cymru also for tabling this debate today? We will be supporting the motion, and we would have been happy to support the Government’s amendment too, but it deletes point 2. I can’t see why the Government couldn’t accept the point, identify the reasons why and contrast that with the new ambitions for their forthcoming strategy. I move the amendment too.

Now, the reasons why—well, why don’t we start with local authorities? They should have grasped their obligation to promote the Welsh language by now. The Welsh in education statutory plans have failed. It’s a waste of money asking councils to do investigative work or promoting work if they’re not going to act upon the results. Worse than that, it just reinforces existing perceptions that Welsh language policy to date has been more about political vanity and box-ticking than a deep-seated will to develop a bilingual nation.

A lack of leadership and direction has resulted in demand for Welsh-medium education that is growing slowly and uncertainly across council areas in my region. There is no convenient concentration to plan for the building of new schools, therefore we’re seeing the centralisation of provision, drawing visible Welshness out of communities for the benefit of one site, which is sometimes at some distance from children’s homes. That doesn’t help with another of the Government’s priorities, which is to grow the use of Welsh in all communities. And it may be inconvenient enough for some families not to follow up on their good intentions, halting and reversing demand. Another temptation is to ignore demand—letting existing Welsh-medium overflow to the point where, once again, demand is stifled in its early stages.

Let us worry less about building schools in centralised locations, which will be too small or too big in the medium term, and look more closely at growing Welsh-medium use on existing school sites. Now, to be clear, this isn’t a distraction from the need for new Welsh-medium schools. It’s an additional option for councils that that are in this time trap, if I can describe it like that, which I’ve just described. I’m not talking either about bilingual schools. I’m talking about existing English-medium schools, which have Welsh-medium units that are co-located, but are separate, that grow year on year with each new intake. At the same time, as we’ve discussed before, Lee Waters, English-medium schools need to increase the use of Welsh as a medium of communication. There is still a need for those who are in the English-language system to have the opportunity to develop decent Welsh language skills for use in their future lives.

Now, I accept that this creates a huge challenge for the Welsh Government—I accept that: a curriculum that insists upon dedicated use of Welsh in English-medium schools; school sites that are flexible and that accommodate growing Welsh demand, and, possibly, dropping English demand as a result; and, of course, as Llyr has mentioned, a workforce that can educate well in such a system, or whatever. In the meantime, of course, we have to consider the children and young people who are going through the system that we already have, and how likely it is that they’ll get a chance to acquire sufficient Welsh language skills for continued use after school, and that they value enough to pass on to their children in due course. These are the generations that are facing the double-whammy of the reluctance—a poor experience at school, as Lee has said, and an employment market where employers don’t see the use of Welsh as something that is important.

Standards have a role, but as you will have heard from me before, if business doesn’t believe that bilingualism is a virtue, then you’re looking at another roadblock to your aim of 1 million speakers. There are opportunities for the Coleg Cymraeg to offer Welsh-medium education in further education colleges, and I hope, Minister, that you’re actively considering those. There are also opportunities for relevant Welsh language skills to be developed in vocational course that lead to public-facing careers, such as social care, retail, hair and beauty, and so forth. College leaders seem confused I talk about this distinction, but Welsh-medium education is not the sole responsibility of creating Welsh speakers. Thank you.