Education, Culture and Sport Committee, 04 Dec 2001

Meeting date: Tuesday, December 4, 2001

Official Report 185KB pdf

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Temporary Convener

I call for nominations for a temporary convener until Karen Gillon arrives.

I am happy to nominate Frank McAveety.

I second that nomination.

As there are no other nominations, I am delighted to welcome Frank McAveety to this elevated post. I am tempted to say more but I will not.

Mr Frank McAveety was chosen as temporary convener.

I feel as though this is my Andy Warhol 15 minutes of fame.

As we are in public session, I ask everyone who has a mobile phone or pager to turn them off.

I welcome a new member to the committee—Jackie Baillie. Before we ask Jackie to declare any interests, members may want to comment on the fact that I am in this temporary position because the former deputy convener is no longer here.

I am very sorry that Cathy Peattie is no longer a member of the committee. With her permission, and having spoken to other committee members, I raised the issue in the chamber on Thursday afternoon and was informed that it is for the political parties to decide on the membership of committees. I am happy to welcome Jackie Baillie because I like her and I think that she will be a good contributor to the committee, but Cathy Peattie was a distinguished committee member—her knowledge of traditional arts and music was invaluable in our cultural work, as was her strong social conscience and her devotion to ensuring that opportunities in education in particular are made as widely available and taken up as often as possible. I will certainly miss her, and I think that the committee will miss her presence and her contributions. I deeply regret that her party has decided not to nominate her and I hope that, at some stage, she will rejoin us. This is not to diminish my welcome to Jackie Baillie, but I feel a sense of great regret that Cathy Peattie is not here.

I think that everyone would agree that Cathy has been a sterling worker for the committee, of which she has been a member since its first meeting. Like Mike Russell, I feel that we should put on record our appreciation of her work and hope that, in future, she can still contribute to the committee's work through consultation. Thank you for your words, Mike.

I endorse that and I hope that Cathy will feel that she can still attend the committee to see the conclusions of some of the reports that she has been involved in.

That is an important point. Cathy was the reporter on traditional music issues. It will be a great pity to lose her expertise. Although she is no longer a member of the committee, arrangements could perhaps be made for her to continue that work and bring her report to the committee.

That issue could be explored; I feel that Cathy might want us to do that.