I would like to start also by congratulating my fellow Member for Mid and West Wales on her assumption of office. She does, of course, have a large void to fill, because her predecessor was certainly a substantial figure in the Welsh Government and in Welsh politics, and I hope I don't alarm her too much in saying that I look forward to supporting her with as much vigour as I supported her predecessor, because I was a great admirer of his in the way in which he carried out his functions as Minister for the Welsh language. So, I wish her well in her post, and I'm sure that she will be as successful as he was. I note also that there's been a touch of class added to the Government since the reshuffle, as now 15 per cent of our Ministers are also members of the upper House in Parliament, and I think this is progress of a very high order. I welcome Dafydd Elis-Thomas also to his position. I look forward to more peers being appointed in due course, but that means we must have more peerages bestowed upon Members of this Assembly in order to achieve it, but there we go.

Anyway, I welcome this report, and I think that Meri Huws has been a successful language commissioner, as we've heard. The reason why I supported Alun Davies so enthusiastically was that he has placed far more emphasis upon carrots than sticks in achieving the objective of achieving a million Welsh speakers by 2050. I think Meri Huws, when she gave evidence to the Welsh language committee, the culture and Welsh language committee, a few weeks ago, also showed the degree of flexibility that is required if we are to achieve this objective. When I asked her, 'What would you have done differently in the last five years if you knew then what you know now?', she said that

'the way in which we work with organisations that are captured under the standards regime has changed.'

To start with, they imposed standards, which were

'far more formal—arm’s length—in our approach to organisations. Perhaps we discussed issues less on a face-to-face basis. We were far more paper-based. That has changed', as a result of which the relationship with local government has changed for the better.

As the Minister pointed out in her introduction to the debate today, it's no good just providing Welsh language facilities if people aren't going to use them. So, I think the overwhelming need at this stage in this process is to promote the use of the Welsh language much more vigorously than we have done in the past, and, yes, of course, in order to promote the use, you have to have facilities for people to use to make it worthwhile for that promotion to take place.

But I do think that there are very significant signs of progress quite beyond statutory schemes. Indeed, in the evidence that was given to the committee by the Welsh Language Commissioner recently, she said there are visible signs of people and organisations who don't have legal obligations taking the initiative on Welsh language provision voluntarily, rather than being forced to do so, and, over the past five years, organisations asking, 'How can I implement Welsh language provision?', rather than 'why?', has been significantly increasing, and I think that is the most optimistic sign. She says we see evidence of voluntary action on the ground in terms of our high streets. We hear Welsh being used more in business, in Cardiff city centre. She does believe that the culture has changed.

Of course, there's always more that can be done, but I do believe that the voluntary approach is one that is more likely to be successful in the long run, particularly as we try to break the language out of what we might call the 'laager' of the west and the north, where there's a much higher proportion of the population that understands and speaks it. If we are to bring English monoglot areas with us, I think this is the line that we have to take. So, I'm ambivalent on the question of whether the commissioner should be abolished and replaced by a commission, although I do think it was rather a weak response to the amendment put down by Plaid Cymru that—. If there's a consultation going on, we could see this amendment actually as part of the consultation, if you like, but I know that the Minister isn't going to announce today a decision that falls to be taken in due course.

But if we concentrate on outcomes rather than forms and structures of organisations, I think that is the way to go. We're going to abstain on this amendment today, because I haven't, like the Minister, quite made my mind up on whether this is the right way to go as yet. But I do think that we have made significant progress. The Government is to be congratulated (a) on bringing in the initial aim of a million Welsh speakers by 2050, and the progress that has been made in a relatively short time. The current Welsh Language Commissioner has made a significant contribution towards that, and I think she's to be congratulated. I wish the Minister well in her conduct of her office in the coming years, and I look forward to working with her, rather than, as we've traditionally done, worked against each other.