Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:45 pm on 28 January 2020.
Thank you, Dai. May I say that it is important to underline that languages die in the world every other week? I think it important that people can look to us and can learn from us. But I think it is important that we don't always talk about the death of the language and 'We are still here' and so on. We have to change the way we talk about the language. We need to celebrate, we need to look to the future. It's really important that we take positive steps, looking to the future, rather than the past. How are we going to inspire people to come to the language if we don't speak with that kind of positive vocabulary?
I'm sure that you'll be pleased to hear that I'll be having a conversation with Neath council tomorrow about the situation with regard to the Welsh language, but I'll also be visiting ysgol Bro Dur, and that is a new school that has opened in the area. Of course there is room for further discussion, but I do think, in terms of Swansea, they have moved quite far in this area. I know that Felindre has closed, but there were only 14 pupils at that school, and I thought that everyone understood that it made more sense. Moving ysgol Tan-y-lan to a new location means that 420 new places are available. Tirdeunaw and Pontybrenin are new schools. These are all new schools that have opened in Swansea. So, I think we need to give praise where it's due to Swansea for the journey that they have taken in this area.
In terms of the WESPs, we do have plans now for 10 years. Every council has received a target in terms of what they should be achieving over the next 10 years. So, that planning over the longer term is, hopefully, in place.