Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd—I nearly said 'Gadeirydd' then, because our great stand-in Chair of the committee is just across the Chamber. But I do want to start by paying tribute to Helen, who, from 1999, has been a great servant and a great force to Welsh devolution and the development of our political institutions, and stepped in so ably. We all look forward, naturally, to Bethan coming back, but honestly, the committee lost none of its focus, and you took forward the priorities that under Bethan's leadership had been established, and really, in a year of most remarkable disruption for the whole Senedd in its working arrangements, we were able to cope with that and to really produce a succession of very important focused reports.

I thought this was a very impressive inquiry. It was fairly short, but we received, I thought, excellent and authoritative evidence, just about how the impact of COVID has been felt, across Wales but particularly in Welsh-speaking communities, and then also for the whole infrastructure that is there culturally and also in the education sector to promote and enhance and to fully allow Welsh to flourish. I think it's appropriate that we look at 'Cymraeg 2050' and the ambitions set there, and it took us a long time for that document to emerge from a Welsh Government—it's only two or three years old. We nearly got to the twentieth anniversary of devolution without an effective plan for how we would be a real bilingual society. And it's a really important document and the goals it sets for the medium and longer term are really, really important to us, and we must evaluate how COVID has disrupted some of these initial patterns, because we don't want to see any decline in our muscle mass—the infrastructure. 

Now, as Helen said, the Urdd and the Eisteddfod and many other organisations have conducted a remarkable amount of activity, in the cultural sector but also in promoting the language and in ensuring that people who want to access Welsh and to learn Welsh can do that on digital platforms. All sorts of personalities, now, are telling us that they're trying to learn a little bit of Welsh, from well beyond the borders of Wales, and it's something of an international cult now, I think it's fair to say, which is not good enough for us, but at least it has piqued the interest of many people out there, who suddenly realise, 'Gosh, the oldest language in Britain is not English but it's Welsh.' So, they've taken advantage. It's a very good second best, I think, when you can have something equivalent to a digital Eisteddfod, but it is a second best, and I think in future we'll want to retain the digital end, because of, if nothing else, the equality aspect of it in allowing some people who cannot physically get to locations to be able to do so. So, there are great advantages there, and we really have seen the big anchor organisations respond with great alacrity, and I think this shows their underlying health and how much we should be in partnership with them in achieving our core aims for the future.

I do remain somewhat concerned about when the furlough finally ends and some of the support there at the moment, because there are a lot of highly professional people employed in these core institutions, and it's essential that they are retained and that we don't lose that, and for economic development in rural areas, but not just rural areas. We now have parts of Cardiff where the Welsh language and the economy around that is really important, and a growth sector with great potential, so I do want to see the urban side emphasised too. But let's face it, most community Welsh speakers are in largely rural areas or small towns and we dismiss some of these, as one witness said, as the hinterland areas. Well, they're not hinterland; they're an essential part of our life. And I thought what Helen said about the digital strategy and the need for a technology action plan to reflect the needs from the rapid change to online for Welsh language learning and for cultural activities, which we will wish to retain when we get back to the physical world—. But, in many areas, they don't have great connections and we need to remember that.

So, to conclude, Llywydd, I think we should congratulate all these organisations, and I will single out the Urdd and Eisteddfod, but there are many others too, for their outstanding work. We must ensure that the enterprise they've learned is an additional one and doesn't then end up replacing some of the past core activities, which are equally important.