It’s a pleasure to take part in this very important debate on the committee report on ‘Achieving the Ambition—Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s new Welsh Language Strategy’. Of course, the aim, as we’ve heard many times, is to have a million Welsh speakers. It is a very ambitious aim, as we note in this excellent preamble by the excellent Chair to this committee. The survival of the Welsh language is amazing, because the context is one where we sometimes become a bit depressed about the future of the language. However, bearing in mind that there are more than 7,000 languages on the face of the earth, one language disappears off the face of the earth every other month. That’s the reality of the situation, and, in accepting that context, the survival of the Welsh language is amazing. The fact that more than 0.5 million people speak the language today is also amazing.

Of course, old Welsh is the original language of the isle of Britain. The word ‘Britain’ comes from ‘Prydain’. Back in the sixth century, everyone from Edinburgh downwards could speak old Welsh. That’s why we all have those old Welsh names: Ystrad Clud—Strathclyde—Lanark from Llannerch, Ecclefechan—Eglwys fechan—in Dumfries, and Caerliwelydd is Carlisle, and so on. So, this is part of the history not just of the people of Wales, but of the people of Britain. Having said that, the aim of a million Welsh speakers is to be supported, and I congratulate the Minister on that aim. The Minister also knows that we’ve been here before. Just over a century ago, we had a million Welsh speakers, and now we’re talking about regaining that territory, and the committee’s aim in putting together this report was to look at how we all—it’s not just a task for the Government—can regain that territory of having a million Welsh speakers.

Of course, a key factor at the outset is promotion. There’s a lot of talk in this report about the need to promote, meaning, as Suzy Davies has noted, a cultural shift in some areas of Wales, and a change of attitude among some people who are against the Welsh language and who treat it with disdain. There’s a job of work to be done there; there’s a great deal of work for everyone. Our language is a treasure. We’ve had great growth previously and we can have great growth again, but we need a landscape that understands the importance of this for our children and our children’s children. Through promotion, we need to advocate the advantages of Welsh-medium education. Some people out there believe that, if you send your child to a Welsh primary school, they don’t learn English at all. Well, no, that’s nonsense—naturally, you have a Welsh-medium education, but you learn English as well. So, the excellence of the situation is, when you send your child to a Welsh-medium school from the age of three or four, by the time they reach 11, they’re fluent in two languages. We need to have that fundamental information out there: you send your child to a Welsh-medium school, and, by the age of 11, they are fluent in two languages.

Children learn like sponges. They don’t stop at learning two languages; you can teach them a third or fourth language—that happens in many countries. Some people have to get over the hang-up they have about ‘you should just speak English or you’ll confuse the children’. That’s a very old-fashioned attitude. We have to move on from that and be aware that it is to be treasured, the ability to speak two languages, when, later on, and even in some of our primary schools, children do learn a third language like French or German, as my children did. My children had the opportunity to go to a Welsh-medium school—I didn’t. I went to an English-medium school, because I’m so old, of course—before this growth in Welsh-medium schools in recent times.

It also starts before school, with nurseries, and we heard quite a lot of evidence about the importance of Mudiad Meithrin and Welsh-medium nurseries, because, to get that fluency in the language, you have to get our children as early as possible. That’s also an element, and there was a recommendation—recommendation 7—to that end, but, of course, I don’t think Mudiad Meithrin is going to get what they asked for—in the short term, anyway.

I do commend and appreciate the efforts of the Government to tackle this and to go for a million Welsh speakers, but it’s not just a job for the Government—it’s a job for us all. Thank you very much.