This is a letter sent by the Chair of Dyfodol i’r Iaith to the Petitions Committee of the National Assembly for Wales regarding our petition supporting the Mentrau Iaith

Dear Members of Petitions Committee,

We are pleased to note that you will be considering the Petition Support for the Mentrau Iaith in your next meeting on 29th April 2014 and we hope that you will be in a position to take further action following that meeting.

The  Mentrau Iaith are community organisations that operate to benefit the Welsh language locally and they provided a wide range of activities and projects through the medium of Welsh to people f all ages and backgrounds in Wales’ communities.  The report by Cardiff University, commissioned by the Welsh Government, states that the work of the Mentrau should continue and develop. The report also notes that the Mentrau do not receive sufficient core funding to operate to their full potential. You can read the report here: http://wales.gov.uk/topics/welshlanguage/publications/review-of-mentrau-iaith/?lang=en

Dyfodol i’r Iaith decided to present a petition to support the  Mentrau following a review of their work in order to call on the Assembly to ask the Welsh Government to increase their support to the Mentrau and respond in a timely and positive way following that report

We were pleased to hear the First Minister declare his support for the  Mentrau Iaith in several recent statements and on the floor of the Assembly, saying that he considered the Mentrau to be “powerful and valuable tools” and that he wanted to “ensure that their work continues to the future” We now believe it is timely for the First Minister and the Government to take action to make a genuine difference to the future of the Mentrau and the Welsh language by investing in them.

We would be pleased to discuss further with you and would be happy to come to one of your meetings in the near future to discuss how you as a Committee can help us to support the  Mentrau Iaith for the good of the Welsh language across Wales.

Best wishes,

Heini Gruffudd