Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 2:57 pm on 4 July 2018.
I'd just like to thank you for your enthusiasm for the language, because we need to get to a million speakers and you're on that list, so thank you very much. I think you're absolutely right—I think that people underestimate the value of Welsh language education. We know that there is a lot of evidence to suggest that, actually, it helps broaden education in its wider sense, and there's evidence across the globe that bilingualism is a positive development. I think, also, it should be noted that there is increasing demand in places like Merthyr, and I'm very pleased to see that and I'd like to thank you for your support in that.
But I think there's also a commercial reason for him to do this. The fact is that, in the last census, if you look at how many people live within an hour of Trago Mills, there are about 110,000 people who speak Welsh, and 86 per cent of the people of Wales are enthusiastic and supportive about the Welsh language. So, it doesn't make any commercial sense not to be in the same place as those people, and so I do hope that the chair of Trago Mills will rethink his approach to the language.