Nid oeddwn i’n gallu siarad gair o Gymraeg tan roeddwn i’n 32 oed, a dechreuais i ddysgu Cymraeg pan oeddwn i’n athro achos, yn fy ysgol, nid oedd digon o athrawon Cymraeg ar gael i ddysgu plant ar gyfer arolwg Estyn. Es i i’r brifysgol yn Llanbed a gwnes i gwrs Wlpan dros ddau fis, a dysgais i Gymraeg o fewn wythnos ar ôl gorffen y cwrs. Fel athro ieithoedd, yn arbennig y Gymraeg, mae profiad gyda fi o’r heriau sydd yn wynebu pobl a hoffai ddysgu Cymraeg, ond nid oes digon o athrawon sydd yn gallu’r Gymraeg ar gael er mwyn gwneud hyn yn realiti. Mae angen gwell cynllunio ar gyfer y gweithlu addysg i sicrhau bod digon o athrawon sydd yn gallu dysgu drwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg. Mae angen cynllun i annog siaradwyr Cymraeg i ymuno â’r gweithlu addysg, a chynllun er mwyn denu athrawon sy’n siarad Cymraeg sy’n gweithio mewn gwledydd eraill i ddod yn ôl i Gymru.

Mewn rhai ysgolion, nid oes digon o amser, chwaith, yn y cwricwlwm. Weithiau, pan oeddwn i’n athro, dim ond hanner awr yr wythnos oedd gan athro i ddysgu Cymraeg i’r plant. Sut mae disgwyl i blant ddysgu unrhyw iaith heb yr amser priodol?

Fe soniodd Dai yn gynharach am yr angen i gynnig mwy o gyfleoedd ar gyfer addysg i oedolion. Yn rhy aml, nid oes digon o gyrsiau, neu mae cyrsiau yn rhy gostus, sydd yn atal pobl rhag cymryd rhan.

We often hear of the expense of the Welsh language, and most people appreciate the cultural value, but I’d like to talk about the economic benefits, because the Welsh language makes money for Wales. It recycles money in the country and it’s a key to economic development and strengthening the economy. ‘Ein iaith’—our language—it’s important to say, is a unique selling point. It gives us a competitive advantage over other places in the UK and is an attraction for foreign investors. In 2014, that’s what the Welsh Government task group found and it’s my personal experience in showing investors around Wales also.

I do want to say that there are some people in Wales who suffer almost from a perverse schizophrenia in that they see themselves as Welsh, yet they seem to hate Welsh things: if we look at people who want to denigrate the Eisteddfod, for example, with a journalist last year sowing division. The Welsh Rugby Union have massive lessons to learn from the Football Association of Wales about how to be proud of our language and unique culture, a ‘diolch o galon’ to the boys out in France in the summer. Further afield, we have BBC Radio 5 Live asking people to comment on whether they thought cultural genocide was acceptable, in whether the Welsh language should exist or not. If we are equal as nations in the UK, why isn’t Welsh taught right across every country? I think there’s a real danger now that minority cultures will be overwhelmed by a very aggressive, one-size-fits-all, narrow UK nationalism. What angers me is the way that certain kinds of politicians use differences like ethnicity and language to single out minorities.

I’m glad to see some Labour heads nodding in agreement in the Chamber, and I thank you. I’d ask them to have a serious word, therefore, with their Minister for finance, who supported the ‘chwarae teg for English medium’ campaign in my council ward in Fairwater in 2010, 2011 and 2012. The whole thrust of the campaign was that Welsh-medium schools get everything, and that’s shameful. I ask you to make sure nothing like that happens again, because it’s wrong.

What I’m really proud of now is that in Cardiff and Wales a lot of things have changed. Many in the lost generation—that’s my generation—were not allowed to learn Welsh, and we make sure that our children go to Welsh-medium schools. Unfortunately, despite the warm words and cosy consensus here, when in local government Labour denies Welsh-medium places to parents—parents like Kyle Jones—[Interruption.] Please don’t tut; listen. Parents like Kyle Jones in Ely, who wasn’t able this year to send his children to Welsh-medium education. He was unable to choose—unable to choose, in Wales’s capital city. I remember, in 2013, when Labour took over the council and cancelled the building of the Welsh school in Grangetown, and I remember the right to simultaneous translation being withdrawn by that council across the road, until I refused to speak English in the chamber.

Out there, in the twenty-first century, there is nowhere near—nowhere hear—as much prejudice against the Welsh language as there used to be. [Interruption.]