The National Assembly for Wales' Presiding Officer, Dame Rosemary Butler AM, will deliver a keynote speech at the Royal Welsh Show on 22 July.
Dame Rosemary will host a reception in the Governor's Pavilion at 16.30, where she will deliver a speech setting out her priorities for the remainder of the Fourth Assembly.
Those priorities are:
- Getting clarity and coherence on the further powers to be devolved and making sure that our key messages are relevant and understood;
- Making sure Wales' voice continues to be heard at the UK level;
- Increasing our engagement with the people of Wales and making sure we tap into the array of expertise and knowledge from all of our diverse communities, and;
- Bringing openness, transparency and greater opportunities for effective scrutiny in our proceedings.
"As Presiding Officer, these have been and will continue to be, my priorities as we move towards the conclusion of the Fourth Assembly," she will say in her speech.
But Dame Rosemary will also focus on some of the achievements of the past four years, in particular the constitutional journey.
"In the lead up to and since the Scottish referendum, much of my time has been taken up with ensuring that Wales' voice is heard at UK levels," she will say.
"We do not want, or deserve, to be left behind in the debate about the devolution of further powers to Wales while much is being said about devolution to Scotland and the regions of England.
"I have therefore made strong representations to ensure that the Assembly has a firm and permanent place and that we have the responsibility to determine our own affairs in the future. I was pleased to work closely with the Secretary of State for Wales to safeguard our place in the UK and I welcome his commitment to deliver a Wales Bill which will implement in full the commitment he made in his St David's Day announcement earlier this year.
"The devil is in the detail of course, so I continue to apply pressure to ensure that we get a settlement which fairly represents our maturity as a parliamentary institution and provides clarity and coherence – not only for the Assembly but for the people of Wales."
The Presiding Officer will reiterate her call for the Assembly to be able to determine:
- its own electoral arrangements;
- its name (which is an important symbolic issue); and
- the appropriate voting age for Assembly elections.
In the remainder of the speech Dame Rosemary will look at what has been achieved over the past four years to increase the topicality and variety of backbenchers' scrutiny of Ministers, as well as introducing dedicated time for 'Leaders' Questions' during First Minister's Question time.