9. 7. United Kingdom Independence Party Debate: Welsh-medium Schools

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:59 pm on 29 March 2017.

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Photo of Darren Millar Darren Millar Conservative 5:59, 29 March 2017

Diolch, Llywydd. I want to move amendments 4 and 5 on the order paper, but I will not be moving amendment 2, as we intend to withdraw that amendment, with your permission, Presiding Officer, because we will be supporting amendment 1 on the order paper.

I have to say I’m a little bit disappointed that this debate is being used to home in on one particular issue in one part of Wales. I think it’s really important that we, as a National Assembly that has supported the Welsh language on a cross-party basis over the duration of many different administrations, stick together in order to advance the cause of Welsh-medium education. We, for our party’s sake, will be supporting that tremendous ambition that has been set out by the Welsh Government to create 1 million Welsh language speakers by 2050. That’s an ambition that we support and we want to help the Government to achieve. We know that Welsh-medium education is going to be absolutely critical if we are going to reach that target and hit it, and that’s why we’ve got to do what we can in every single corner of Wales, no matter whether those corners of Wales are areas where the Welsh language is widely spoken or not. It doesn’t matter whether this is north-east Wales or the borders close to England. At the end of the day, we should be promoting the Welsh language in every corner of our country and doing what we can to maximise the opportunities for young people to go and enjoy their schooling experience through the medium of Welsh. I’ll happily take an intervention.