Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:57 pm on 24 January 2023.
I welcome the Minister's statement this afternoon, and I do think it is important that the Minister does respond to the census results and I'm pleased that he's done so, and I welcome what he's outlined this afternoon. I think it's important that he does respond in the way that he has. There are three things that I would like to say this afternoon—three priorities, perhaps, would be a better way of expressing it.
First of all, education. We've discussed education already during this session, and education is crucially important when it comes to ensuring that we create new Welsh speakers, providing opportunities for those from non-Welsh-speaking backgrounds to learn the language and to develop confidence, and also teaching children about the language and giving children an opportunity to acquire the language. So, education is crucially important.
The second thing is communities. We do know about the pressures on the Welsh language in many of those communities where the Welsh language has been strong, has traditionally been the main language, and it's important that we safeguard the future of our Welsh-speaking communities.
The third thing—and I don't want to upset the Llywydd here—is we also need to promote the Welsh language, because there are a number of people I know—Mike alluded to this—who have the ability to use the Welsh language but don't have the confidence always to use it. There are a number of contexts where people have grown used to using the English language, and I do think that we have to create a culture where people feel comfortable in using the Welsh language where they previously used English, but also that there are new opportunities for people to use the Welsh language. And I'm a lot more confident than many in the Chamber here today, and I've seen a change during my lifetime in attitudes towards the Welsh language. I am convinced that we can reach that target of a million Welsh speakers, and also that we can create the bilingual Wales that we all agree that we want to see, but we've never achieved in the past. So, keep going, Minister—I'm very confident in your abilities.