Thank you very much, Llywydd. I’d like to start by wishing everyone in the Senedd today and everyone watching across Wales a very happy St David’s Day. I’m proud to have the opportunity to open this debate today, which was tabled in the name of Darren Millar, because it is a very important debate to have in the Senedd, especially on St David’s Day. It’s important that we share the message from the Senedd to the people of Wales to say that our Welsh language doesn’t just belong to people who speak the language fluently, but belongs to every person living in Wales.

Welsh is not just a language in the traditional sense. For most of us it’s a story, the story of our journey with the Welsh language. Some of us will have spoken Welsh at home and at school, and will have lived in predominantly Welsh-speaking communities throughout our lives. Perhaps others are learning Welsh for the first time, having developed an interest in or love for our country. And some may only know a few words or phrases, but they use them with pride whenever they feel comfortable in doing so. That’s why I’m looking forward to hearing from colleagues from all parts of the Chamber today, to hear about their Welsh story.

For me, it’s a little more complicated. I went to a second-language Welsh school and got a GCSE in second-language Welsh, and after that I worked at a Welsh language school as a teaching assistant in the year after I left school myself. When I left school my Welsh wasn’t of a high standard because it wasn’t very important to me to develop that. Although most of my teaching was in English, the immersion involved in having to speak it every day with staff and pupils in an educational setting advanced my skills significantly. Then, throughout my university experience and in the following decade, I barely spoke a word of Welsh, and I’d almost forgotten that I could speak the language at all.

Then, in 2021, I was elected to the Senedd in Cardiff Bay, and initially I kept quiet about the fact that I could speak Welsh at all. And then I met someone for the first time, someone called Samuel Kurtz. Well, actually it was the second time, but I promised not to talk about the first. But even though Sam’s Welsh was better than mine, he felt the same way that I did. He felt that he hadn’t used his skills enough over recent years, and he felt, like me, that they had become rusty. So we decided to learn Welsh together using the services available here in the Senedd, and that was a turning point for me. Having someone to chat to in Welsh, and also learn with in Welsh—that was very important to me. Now I feel more able to do a tv or radio interview in Welsh, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow night, when I'll be doing Hawl i Holi on Radio Cymru with Heledd Fychan.

Speaking Welsh is as much to do with confidence as it is to do with skills. It doesn’t matter how old you are or how good your Welsh skills are—now is always the best time to learn. But to inspire someone to accept that challenge we need strong role models in the Welsh language. That’s why it’s nice to see a number of our institutions, most notably the FAW, capitalising on opportunities to normalise the speaking of Welsh. But for me, my Welsh role model is a person, and he is a person whom I know would have wanted to be here today. My role model in the Welsh language is Paul Davies. Paul is just as proud of his Welsh-speaking identity, and of the Welsh language, as he is of his British one. And that's what I felt. He showed me that there was no conflict or contradiction between being Welsh and speaking Welsh, and being a Conservative. The Conservative party has been responsible for some of the biggest developments in Welsh language policy in history. Conservatives in Government commenced the Welsh Language Act 1993, the formation of the Welsh Language Board, developments in Welsh education and, of course, the establishment of the first television channel in the Welsh language, S4C.

But we know there is much more to say, and that's why we are moving this motion today. The results of the latest census, which showed a reduction in the number of Welsh speakers over the last decade, were extremely disappointing. And they put the 'Cymraeg 2050' strategy of the Welsh Government at significant risk of not being achieved. But what worries me the most is the reduction of 6 per cent in the number of Welsh speakers between the ages of five and 15, those who learn Welsh in formal settings. In addition, we have seen reductions in traditional Welsh language areas such as Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Gwynedd. There is much more to be said during this debate by Members on all sides, and I'm sure those things will be said. 

What we intend to achieve is twofold. First, we are calling on the Welsh Government to expand the opportunities it offers people to speak Welsh in the first place, because we know that these experiences can be formative in people's lives. And secondly, we are moving this debate today because it is sending a clear message to people all over Wales that this is your language, whatever your level, so speak it, use it and look after it so that future generations can do the same. Thank you very much.