A closer look at the Plaid Cymru manifesto for Senedd election

If you believe opinion polls, Plaid Cymru could be on the cusp of forming its first ever Welsh government. Even if it comes second behind Reform, there could be potentially enough of a left-wing block in the Senedd to support Rhun ap Iorwerth becoming first minister. It means Plaid's manifesto is pretty important. There are no big changes promised to the infrastructure of the Welsh state. Independence, while its there, is off in the distance to be looked at by a commission with a tiny budget. Instead the party is hoping voters will be attracted to their promises on childcare, to cut waiting times and to reduce child poverty with a pilot of a £10 payment. What do our team of BBC specialists think? Plaid has previously spoken about free school meals for all secondary pupils – it stops short of promising that in this Senedd term, but says free meals would be expanded to year seven to 11 students in households claiming Universal Credit, with no income limit. Also on schools, the party's promising to boost incentives to attract new teachers. But the even bigger challenge of making sure enough can speak Welsh, could be the main barrier to realising ambitions to expand Welsh-medium provis