In the document, the umbrella group ‘Celebrating Our Language – Mudiadau Dathlu’r Gymraeg’ argues that investment in the language should be comparable to that in the Basque Country, and calls upon the Government to aim towards investing 1% of the Welsh Government budget in specific projects to promote the Welsh language.
Speaking before the Big Conversation Conference, Huw Thomas, Chairperson for Celebrating Our Language – Mudiadau Dathlu’r Gymraeg which represents 23 organisations said, “We warmly welcome the Welsh Government’s ‘Big Conversation’ consultation and the opportunity it has given our members to present ideas to strengthen the Welsh language over the next few years. This paper’s objective is to outline ways in which we as organisations believe the Government’s own aims and objectives can be realized. Celebrating Our Language – Mudiadau Dathlu’r Gymraeg believes that more resources are needed to ensure that the Welsh language thrives in the future. We believe that current expenditure should be diversified to ensure that a fair share of the budget can be used to develop and strengthen opportunities to use the language.”
“Due to historical spending patterns, the Government’s investment in the Welsh language has been limited. Any attempt to mainstream the Welsh language throughout all Government departments has been slow and very often any new policies often do not take into account the Government’s own Welsh Language Strategy. In comparison there is a much greater investment in the Basque language, and we find that the investment is paying dividends with an increase in the number of speakers of the language. Recent Census results highlight a number of challenges facing the Welsh language, but we believe that investment in certain areas would not only benefit he Welsh language but a number of other Government objectives.”