Education, Culture and Sport Committee, 04 Sep 2001

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 4, 2001

Official Report 114KB pdf

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Gaelic Broadcasting

Members will have received a paper from Alasdair Morrison, the Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning and Gaelic. He will be attending the committee on 18 September to answer questions on Gaelic broadcasting, but I felt that it was worthwhile to have a paper prior to his coming before us, so that we have an idea of his thoughts on the issue.

Would not it be more appropriate to use the paper to suggest lines of questioning for the minister, rather than to discuss it separately? If the minister is coming to answer questions, that will give us the opportunity to raise the issues outlined in the document.

The minister's paper is a summary of where we are, but it does not gather together all the evidence that we have taken and philosophise about it. Some of the elements that have been touched on are reserved matters, as they relate to broadcasting, and the minister's paper is therefore fairly conservative—with a small "c". It would have been a good starting point for our inquiry, rather than coming at the end.

However, our visit to Stornoway and other evidence that we have taken has given us an insight. We now have material that we can explore with the minister in a creative way. His paper gives the facts of the matter, but we need to get a sense of the political position.

Has the minister seen a copy of our draft report?

No—the minister would not see a copy of a confidential draft committee report.

Ah—here comes Michael.

Are we finished?

Yes—it was a good meeting.

As Ian Jenkins has suggested, the minister is obviously unaware of the volume and depth of the information that the committee has collected. That information goes far beyond what is in the minister's paper.

For your information, Michael, the minister will be coming to the committee on 18 September to answer questions on the issue of Gaelic broadcasting. Members have indicated that the minister's paper gives a good summary of the current situation but does not consider some the evidence that we have taken in the course of our inquiry.

As I said to the convener when we met this morning, initial work has been done on drafting a first report. That work will not go any further until the minister has given evidence. I hope that the report will come to the committee on 25 September for consideration. The aim is still to release the report before, or immediately after, the October recess.

We need to attend to the question of translation into Gaelic. If the convener gives permission, I think that Alex O'Henley should be invited to attend the committee on both 18 September and 25 September so that he can start work on translating the draft report. He has indicated that—even though changes will be made to the draft report—getting a head start would be helpful.

I do not think that members would have any problems with that.

Members indicated agreement.

Although the minister's summary gives a positive description of what is taking place, the current edition of Regional Film & Video—the magazine on film and video for everywhere except London—carries a front-page story headed "Gaelic broadcasting crisis". The story is a report on a statement by Matthew MacIver, who is the retiring chairman of Comataidh Craolaidh Gàidhlig. He says that funding for Gaelic broadcasting in particular has reached a crucial position. The report is germane to what the minister is saying and I am happy to circulate it.

That would be helpful. If there are no other points, I will close the meeting—

There are no other points on that item of business, but—

No, Brian, there is nothing else on the agenda.

Meeting closed at 15:17.