Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:42 pm on 18 June 2019.
Thank you, Llywydd. First Minister, I have a right to ask you a question in Welsh in this Parliament, but my 84-year-old father doesn’t have a right to ask a question in Welsh to his GP, his optician, his pharmacist or his dentist. Now, five years ago, you said personally that the core of the case for improving the use of the Welsh language in primary care is the possibility that it’s only in their first language that a patient who is vulnerable can express him or herself in full. Today, a cross-party committee of this Senedd, including Labour Members, state that there’s been very little, if any, progress made by the regulations that you’ve just published in terms of giving people in Wales the right to receive health services in the language of their choice. Why, after 84 years, is my father still treated as a second-class citizen?