May I start by saying that I look forward now to seeing the publication of the strategy? I hope that it will show the trace of the recommendations and the discussions had in the committee on the language strategy, and suggest specific steps that the Government will consider. Amongst those steps was the idea that this strategy will show the journey for us, for how we go from here, to achieving the aim of a million Welsh speakers, and that it does that with milestones and details so that we can see clearly the journey ahead of us on reaching this ambitious aim.

Simon, and others, have mentioned the importance of education, and I am going to go onto that, but, first of all, I’d like to discuss the question that Sian Gwenllian emphasised, namely this idea of economic prosperity and that prosperity of the language is intrinsically linked to economic prosperity in our communities. In my constituency, there are communities that speak Welsh, there are many communities that in living memory have spoken Welsh but where the Welsh language no longer prospers, and that’s linked to the patterns of economic change over the decades. So, we do need to ensure as we put together an economic strategy that there is an emphasis on how we maintain Welsh-speaking communities. The Government is doing good work with regard to the Better Jobs, Closer to Home project, and we should be looking at that in a linguistic context as well as the context that we’re currently looking at it in.

But within the education system, I also hope that we see changes to the WESPs. Obviously, they weren’t sufficient when they were initially published and the constructive process that has been pursued will, hopefully, lead to far more ambitious plans. But the truth is that, as a matter of principle, we should be meeting in full the demand for Welsh-medium education wherever it arises. We’re not succeeding at present, and that should be the aim. But on top of that, as the language is a cultural asset, of course, but also an educational asset, as we’ve already heard in this debate, then we should be taking specific steps to create the demand for Welsh-medium education over a period of time as well. So, we need that level of ambition so that we can reach the aim ahead of us.

We discussed in the committee how important nursery education is to reach the aim, and I think we should be looking at pilots for parents who can’t speak Welsh who choose to send their children to nursery schools through the medium of Welsh, so that they too should receive training to support their children through their educational journey in the language. That’s part of a wider process—and the strategy is clear about the importance of this—of normalising the use of the language within the family, as well as in the community and in workplaces more widely.

On a personal level, until I was elected to the Assembly, I’d never worked in a workplace where it was possible to speak Welsh. That experience of coming here and being able to speak Welsh or in English as I wish, more or less, has been a very positive and desirable thing on a personal level, and that’s what we should be trying to provide to everyone in all workplaces: that we don’t have to think, ‘Does this person speak Welsh?’—that it’s something that becomes much more natural and much more wide-ranging and widely available to people in general. So, I welcome the emphasis on promotion.

I said in the previous debate that we need a revolution to reach this aim. We need that cultural shift to ensure that people can feel confident and can have the ability to speak Welsh in their workplaces and in their daily lives. Part of that, as Suzy Davies said, is to do with people’s own confidence, but if you’re not sure that the person you’re talking to is going to respond in Welsh, then the question of confidence holds you back whatever your ability in the Welsh language. So, I think that’s an important part of that.

Briefly, on this question of the general right, I would like the Government to look at the discussion that we had in the Pierhead a few months ago with Gwion Lewis, who was talking about creating the general right to use the Welsh language in all parts of social life, but aligned with that that we have guidance to show where it would be more likely that we would be able to use that right. It was a very constructive discussion and it was a very far-reaching proposal, and I would encourage the Government to consider it in due course.