Chamber and committees

This week, Homes for Scotland’s “Existing Housing Needs in Scotland” report showed that 85,000 households are living in properties that do not have the required adaptations or support for the disabled people who live in them. The 27 per cent cut to the housing budget will not help to drive forward the progress that we need on aids and adaptations. Will the minister who has responsibility for equality tell the chamber what assessment was made of the impact that the cut will have on disabled people across Scotland?

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the report by Homes for Scotland highlighting that almost 700,000 households in Scotland are in housing need. (S6T-01752)

Thank you, Presiding Officer. I am happy to have the opportunity to speak on this important matter.

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. Tá áthas orm deis a bheith agam labhairt ar an ábhar tábhachtach seo.

I felt it appropriate to begin my speech in both English and Irish this evening. I am sure that the official report will correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that that is perhaps the first use of the Irish language in a debate in the Scottish Parliament. I say “in a debate” because I am very conscious of the speech of Uachtarán na hÉireann Michael D Higgins in 2016, and I would not want to claim to be the first, given that such an august speaker used Irish in this chamber. However, as someone who has both British and Irish citizenship, I wanted to use cúpla focal in recognition of the values of the institution that we debate this evening. Those values are co-operation, building relationships, building respect and understanding. We seek to co-operate across our islands; we seek to build relationships of family, politics and business; and we seek to show respect for our shared heritage and our commonality as well as understanding of our differing traditions.

Through the power of dialogue, debate and agreement, we can find solutions to common problems for the people whom we represent across these islands. It is a pleasure to follow many fine speeches in that regard, and I pay tribute in particular to Emma Harper for bringing the motion to the chamber. I also pay tribute to all the members of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, the associate members—I declare an interest, as one of those associates—all the staff and all those who help to make the Assembly work so well, including those who have done so in the Scottish Parliament since the beginning of the Parliament almost 25 years ago.

I will use my time this evening to focus on the vital work of the institution in securing and sustaining peace in Northern Ireland. We are now 25 years on from the Good Friday agreement. Last year, I was proud to lead commemorations in this Parliament of that historic moment, with the support of the Irish consul, Mr Jerry O’Donovan, the John Smith Centre at the University of Glasgow and the John and Pat Hume Foundation.

It was wonderful to hear mention of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition—Monica McWilliams, who was a founding member of that coalition, was here in the Parliament and spoke passionately about her work. However, I want to focus on John Hume because, without his vision, his total commitment to dialogue and his forbearance, there would be no peace in Northern Ireland, and there would be no British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly as we know it.

As we have heard, the peace process did not begin and end on Good Friday in 1998. It was a long journey, where windows of light let chinks into the darkness along the way, until finally the door of agreement was reached and opened. We had the Anglo-Irish agreement of 1985, the establishment of the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body in 1990, the Downing Street declaration in 1993 and so on—all those moments were crucial on the journey to 1998, and they were all inspired by the architecture of John Hume.

In 1980, John Hume met Humphrey Atkins, who was then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Mr Hume was accompanied by his Social Democratic and Labour Party colleagues Austin Currie and Hugh Logue—with regard to whom I should declare an interest, as he is my father’s cousin. They told the secretary of state that there were three important elements in any political talks: relationships between the people of Northern Ireland, relationships between the people of the north and south of the island of Ireland and relations between Britain and Ireland. Those would become the defining three strands of the Good Friday agreement.

John Hume envisaged that new bodies would help to foster the conditions for a lasting settlement and an enduring peace. It is clear to me that BIPA embodies those three strands: supporting dialogue between the parties and people in Northern Ireland, supporting dialogue north and south on the island of Ireland and supporting dialogue east and west between these islands. The work that colleagues do today is vital in continuing the on-going business of building better futures for us all.

Even as we face the difficult challenges that we have heard about, both domestic and international, it is clear that BIPA is needed more than ever. As our colleagues in the Northern Ireland Assembly have not sat for two years and the institutions of the Good Friday agreement are threatened, it is clear that we must continue to do all that we can to bring people together. We must protect what has been built and offer that east-west hand of friendship, because it matters to so many of us in the diaspora here in Scotland and beyond.

I will end with the words of John Hume, who said:

“When people are divided, the only solution is agreement.”

Therefore, long may the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly be a forum for the solution that is found in dialogue, respect and agreement.

Thank you. Go raibh maith agat.

I thank the minister for that answer and I note his desire to engage with Homes for Scotland. The results of the extensive survey show for the first time that more than a quarter of households in Scotland are in housing need. The headline covers 185,000 people struggling to afford their house, with 85,000 people living in houses that they cannot use because they are not adapted appropriately for people who have disabilities. The report unmasks the day-to-day reality of people living in a house that is far from being a decent home.

Without accurate measurements and an understanding of the land supply that is needed, we do not stand a chance of meeting the targets that the Government has set. What will the minister do to take urgent action, in light of the report, to ensure that local authorities have the information that they need and that they can provide the Government with accurate land supply figures on which the Government can then act?

That answer is another indication of a minister with his head in the sand. The report is stark. In the absence of an effective land requirement assessment, Homes for Scotland has gone out and done the work and it estimates that a quarter of a million households need a home. Instead of building them, the Government is slashing our housing supply budget. Housing starts are falling off a cliff. The housing association sector has already passed judgment on the Scottish Government’s budget by saying that it is an “act of surrender” and that

“the cut is a terrible blow to efforts to tackle child and family poverty.”

I say to the minister that the first step in solving any problem is to acknowledge that there is one. How much more evidence, and how many more reports and pleas from organisations will it take for the Government to accept that there is a housing emergency of its own making and that serious action needs to be taken now?

Communities across Inverclyde, in my region, are deeply concerned about the possibility of a permanent reduction in availability of their out-of-hours services and what that will mean for local communities. I pay tribute to local campaigners, including local councillors—in particular, Martin McCluskey—for all their work in pushing forward the case for the value of those services. That marks quite a contrast to the member for Greenock and Inverclyde, who, according to reports in the Greenock Telegraph, has already given up the fight and accepted that his constituents and mine will have to put up with reduced services.

Does the cabinet secretary recognise the value and importance of a full out-of-hours service in Inverclyde? Will he listen to local people’s views and deliver more than just a weekend-only out-of-hours service, as local people deserve?

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to discuss out-of-hours GP services in Inverclyde. (S6O-02989)

It is important to the committee that we understand the Scottish Human Rights Commission’s views on that, the extent to which there has been collaboration and whether there needs to be follow-up scrutiny, so that undertaking to come back to the committee with the detail is really helpful.

No. That was very useful in terms of the wider piece of work around commissioners. I will pause there.

Sorry. I decided not to touch any buttons because of Fulton MacGregor’s experience earlier, but I should probably have pressed something.

I have a question about the universal periodic review. When the commission wrote the committee about the UK’s fourth cycle of that periodic review, which took place in November 2022, it said that it would be encouraging the UK and Scottish Governments to work constructively together before the formal response to the UPR report was sent. The response was published in March of last year. I am keen to get your views and your assessment of the UK Government’s response and, if you want to comment on this, to hear whether you think that the two Governments worked together on it or whether there could have been more opportunities for that constructive working.