I'm pleased to respond to this statement from the Minister, which gave an update on the dementia action plan. May I say, first of all, that I have been vice president of the Alzheimer's Society for many years, and I have also been vice president of Forget Me Not dementia clubs recently in Swansea? I also have personal experience of dementia over the past two years, following the death of my father recently, after months of suffering with dementia.

So, in responding to this statement, I want to emphasise the change that's required in services in our communities, having set out my association with the Forget Me Not clubs and the Alzheimer's Society and a number of others who work voluntarily in our communities. And, of course, most of the care for people with dementia is also done on a voluntary basis by families, and their contribution is crucial in this regard. If it were all to fall on social care and the health service, then we couldn't cope with this appalling situation in any way whatsoever, so it's important that we recognise and pay tribute to the contribution and commitment of voluntary carers the length and breadth of Wales in this regard.

And, of course, as the Minister has already said, there is still stigma. People fear discussing dementia. They fear being in contact with people with dementia. That's part of the importance of having that training to become dementia friendly, as the Minister has already mentioned. It's the need for patience. When you are in the queue, paying for something, or waiting to pay for something, behind someone who has dementia, we need patience. We shouldn't be putting pressure on people and hastening them. We need patience and we need to give people time. Because, at the end of the day, much of this is about dealing with the prejudice against dementia and dementia care, because people don't see it as being a physical problem and they see it as a mental health issue. But, of course, dementia is a physical ailment because the brain shrinks. So, that is a physical illness, and dementia deserves equal treatment with other physical illnesses and conditions, and that's what doesn't happen at the moment. If it were dealt with in that way, then we would have the same respect for those suffering with dementia as those with cancer or heart disease.

So, there's a great deal of work to be done in terms of preventing that stigma in our society against those who have dementia, and I would like to hear what the Minister is doing in moving forward with his action plan in order to deal with those issues. Ultimately we are talking about care on the ground and the need for more specific services on the ground.

Social care: the Minister will know my ideas about having a national care service, because the quality of care now is often deficient, can be dangerous or not available at all, and everything then falls on the families. We need more respite care when families are under huge pressure. We need more respite care for them. So, does the Minister have plans specifically to increase the respite care available?

I do welcome what he said about people here in Wales who are first-language Welsh speakers. Of course, as dementia develops, then you lose the ability to speak your second language relatively early. So, we need provision, and we need services in the Welsh language in order to deal with people who are suffering dementia and who are first-language Welsh speakers. They lose their second language, and that happens in all countries where there is more than one language spoken. But, we need a strategy as a matter of urgency to tackle that, because it's our aging population who tend to get dementia. It's not always linked to old age, of course, but there is a substantial percentage of those people who are Welsh speakers, and that's the only language that they have when dementia takes hold, as my own father's experience proved.

So, at the end of the day, I welcome the statement and I welcome the work that's ongoing. But, at the end of the day, as you've mentioned, you need a step change and we need to transform the scale and the quality of the services available on the ground in order to tackle this issue and to provide fairness to our people who have dementia and their families. Thank you.