4. Statement by the Minister for Welsh Language and Lifelong Learning: The Welsh-language Technology Action Plan

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:55 pm on 23 October 2018.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 3:55, 23 October 2018

Well, thank you very much, and I'm glad that you appreciate that the aspirations in the document are good. I think, actually, there's quite a lot of detail in the plan. There is a clear direction of travel. We have had experts advise us on what we should be doing. So, I actually think that what's clear here is that it's not just a plan, it's an action plan—we know exactly where we're going. What we have done is to motivate, and we are working with large tech companies, but it's clear that one of the things we do need to concentrate on also is the content side of things. So, we can't expect these big tech companies to look at content, but that is something that we can help with. We have a wici Cymraeg, and I attended a wici Cymraeg conference in Aberystwyth a few months ago, where people from all over Europe, again, came together to listen to what we were doing to develop the Welsh Wikipedia, which is growing by the day, and we're encouraging schoolchildren and others to ensure that they are adding to that body of knowledge and work that then can be used.

We do have meetings planned with large tech companies; that is an ongoing dialogue we have with them. There has been a large increase in the number of apps that are available in Welsh, and that's thanks largely to a small grants scheme that we ran last year. Some of these have been highly successful. Books for the blind, for example—we've had an example where people are able to read books and then to allow people who are blind to hear books through the medium of Welsh. We've got technology developed so that people who are caring for people with dementia can have access to understand what their loved ones are experiencing, and, again, that's through the medium of Welsh. You can stand on top of a mountain with a particular app and know the names of all the mountains in Welsh as you screen around. These are the things that people would expect to have in English, and now we are allowing that to happen in Welsh and providing the means for that to happen.

But you're absolutely right, we will be monitoring the progress of what we've done already and what we can build on. And let's just be clear about this: this is about building on the good work that's already been done. There are lots of experts in this field already in Wales, but we need a lot more, and one of the things we're keen to do with this project is to make sure that we develop the technology and the abilities of the people who are able to use the technology through the medium of Welsh, and that is an important part of this technology plan.