English: Can I thank Simon Thomas for what he said? I look forward to working with him and others who have ideas to contribute as to how we might achieve those ends. I'll take his questions in reverse order, if I could. I intend town and community councils to be elected next year, on the same day as principal authorities. I'm not sure that I agree with him that we have the blueprint ready for the future of town and community councils in Wales. I want to empower them to do more in future where they do things well. I attended the annual conference of One Voice Wales at Builth Wells on Saturday. I don't think, if you asked the audience there to give me the blueprint, they could have done it themselves. There is still an enormous variety of size, scale and ambition. I've seen some very good things. I was very pleased to be in Bala on Thursday of last week with Partneriaeth Penllyn, looking at the excellent work that they've done, and there is a possible model for rural community councils to work together there. But my impression from all the conversations I've had is that we are yet to be in a position where there is sufficient agreement around how we can strengthen that important tier of local democracy. I say to those who are involved in it: I use the word 'democracy' with some hesitation, where two thirds of seats on community councils are uncontested, and 1,000 seats were left for co-option at the last election. There is more to do, and more thinking to be done to get the very best out of that. His first questions were about answerability in the system. There is a series of ways in which we already have regional arrangements in Wales - joint committees, combined authorities, joint authorities. I want to look at the detail of these different possibilities. They all throw up slightly different questions in terms of democratic answerability, but I think they all have solutions to them as well. Should elected mayors be part of all of that? Well, my approach so far has been to put the possibility of elected mayors there for local populations to decide and leave it for them to determine, rather than believing that, from the National Assembly, we should be directive to those local populations as to the choices that they would wish to make.
Welsh: Hoffwn ddiolch i Simon Thomas am yr hyn a ddywedodd? Rwy'n edrych ymlaen at weithio gydag ef ac eraill sydd â syniadau i'w cyfrannu ynghylch sut y gallem gyflawni'r dibenion hynny. Byddaf yn ateb ei gwestiynau am yn ôl, os caf. Bwriadaf i gynghorau tref a chymuned gael eu hethol y flwyddyn nesaf, ar yr un diwrnod â'r prif awdurdodau. Nid wyf yn siŵr pa un a wyf yn cytuno ag ef bod gennym y glasbrint yn barod ar gyfer dyfodol cynghorau tref a chymuned yng Nghymru. Rwyf am eu grymuso i wneud mwy yn y dyfodol pan fyddant yn gwneud pethau yn dda. Es i i gynhadledd flynyddol Un Llais Cymru yn Llanfair-ym-Muallt ddydd Sadwrn. Nid wyf yn credu, pe byddech wedi gofyn i'r gynulleidfa oedd yno roi glasbrint i mi, y gallent fod wedi gwneud hynny eu hunain. Mae amrywiaeth enfawr o ran maint, graddfa ac uchelgais yn dal i fod. Rwyf wedi gweld rhai pethau da iawn. Roeddwn yn falch iawn o fod yn y Bala ddydd Iau yr wythnos diwethaf gyda Partneriaeth Penllyn, yn edrych ar y gwaith rhagorol y maen nhw wedi ei wneud, ac mae model posibl i gynghorau cymuned wledig weithio gyda'i gilydd yn y fan yna. Ond fy argraff i o'r holl sgyrsiau yr wyf wedi eu cael yw nad ydym eto mewn sefyllfa lle mae gennym ddigon o gytundeb ynghylch sut y gallwn gryfhau'r haen bwysig hon o ddemocratiaeth leol. Dywedaf wrth y rhai sy'n rhan ohoni: rwy'n defnyddio'r gair 'democratiaeth' yn eithaf petrusgar, pan fo dwy ran o dair o seddi ar gynghorau cymuned yn ddiwrthwynebiad, a 1,000 o seddi ar ôl ar gyfer cyfetholiad yn yr etholiad diwethaf. Mae mwy i'w wneud, a mwy o ystyried i'w wneud i gael y gorau o hynny. Roedd ei gwestiynau cyntaf yn ymwneud ag atebolrwydd yn y system. Mae cyfres o ffyrdd y mae gennym eisoes drefniadau rhanbarthol yng Nghymru - cydbwyllgorau, awdurdodau cyfunol, awdurdodau ar y cyd. Rwyf eisiau edrych ar fanylion y gwahanol bosibiliadau hyn. Mae pob un ohonynt yn codi cwestiynau ychydig yn wahanol o ran atebolrwydd democrataidd, ond rwy'n credu bod atebion iddynt i bob un ohonynt hefyd. A ddylai meiri etholedig fod yn rhan o hynny i gyd? Wel, fy agwedd i hyd yn hyn yw rhoi'r posibilrwydd o feiri etholedig i'r poblogaethau lleol i benderfynu arno a gadael iddynt hwy benderfynu, yn hytrach na chredu y dylem ni, o'r Cynulliad Cenedlaethol, gyfarwyddo'r poblogaethau lleol hynny ynghylch y dewisiadau y byddent yn dymuno eu gwneud.