Chamber and committees

So, you think that it would have no impact.

Is it something that you could do in tandem with the Scottish Government, which would take the politics out of it, to an extent?

I do not have any questions.

The Law Society of Scotland has suggested that sentencing guidelines could be an alternative way of achieving the aims of the bill. Have you had discussions with the Scottish Sentencing Council on the possibility of its producing guidelines in relation to the offence of theft involving live animals, as an alternative to your bill?

Do our witnesses agree that the proposed new single overarching power to enable the Scottish ministers to modify by regulation the EIA legislation and the habitats regulations is needed? What impact would that power have on your work?

Yes, I am happy to do that. I hope that the 2018 act will make a difference, because even at this stage, the Government could intervene to ensure that islanders’ views were heard.

It is also disappointing that no progress has been made on 11 out of the 13 objectives in the national islands plan, but I have to say that I am at a loss to understand which of the two objectives has seen any progress at all.

I come to the issue of ferries, on which, despite the fact that they are essential for island communities, we have seen growing disruption. The Government has failed our islands by having no ferry replacement plan, and it started a replacement programme only when the crisis loomed. The building of the Glen Sannox and the Glen Rosa has been a disaster; the cost to the public purse of building those ferries should have replaced the whole fleet, had the plan been efficiently managed. The cost to our island communities has been incalculable—there is a shortage of ferries, and the ones that we have are old and break down regularly.

When I speak to businesses, I am struck by the fact that they are surviving only through sheer determination. Had they not had island DNA, they would have upped and left for places where they did not have to struggle with constant disruption. The same is true for those who need to access healthcare off island. Against the backdrop of failing ferries, the stress of being unwell, in addition to the stress of trying to access care, will be incalculable.

Those issues are crucial to islanders, yet we do not have adequate representation of islanders on the boards of HIAL, CalMac and CMAL. The insinuation is clear: islanders cannot manage their own services. We all know, however, that HIAL was never so proactive as it was when Sandy Matheson chaired the board. Islanders are by nature seafarers and would make a much better job of running those services than people who have never set foot on an island.

The Scottish Government has promised resilience funding, but we need to know the detail of that and how it will protect businesses going forward. As we have heard, ferries are not just a problem for the Clyde and Hebrides service; the Orkney and Shetland interisland fleet is even older, and it does not even provide reasonable disabled access. Those councils cannot afford to replace their fleet, and they need help from the Scottish Government to access capital to allow them to do so.

Our islands are wonderful places, and I am honoured to represent all but two of Scotland’s populated islands. Each island is different, with a different personality, but all islanders have things in common: they are resilient, self-sufficient and quick to help and support others in their community. That is the reality of island living.

The Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 built a level of expectation that, I am sad to say, has not been met. The promise was that policy would be island proofed and that islanders would not be disadvantaged due to where they were born or where they had made their home, and the hope was that legislation would help build island economies and stop depopulation. Sadly, that has not happened. Our amendment points to examples such as highly protected marine areas, the ban on wood-burning stoves, the island bonds plan and many other policies that have been designed with no knowledge of islands or their needs.

We need a rural first policy approach in which every policy is tested in rural or island communities to ensure that there are no unintended consequences and that those policies are designed for our island communities. We know that policies designed in rural and island areas work well in urban settings, but the opposite is not the case. Government agencies ignore their obligations under the 2018 act and do not carry out island communities impact assessments; for example, there have been decisions such as the closure of tourist information offices that were obviously detrimental to those communities, but no impact assessment was carried out on them.

The communities of Mull have expressed concerns about the new school campus, but their concerns have been absolutely ignored. That is, of course, an issue for Argyll and Bute Council, which should be subject to the 2018 act and therefore should be island proofing that policy; however, it is also an issue for the Scottish Government, which will provide funding for the campus. It could step in to ensure that all islanders’ ambitions are met. Surely it is wrong that in a modern Scotland children are being forced to leave home to access education.

The act is a huge disappointment to islanders. It could have been a game changer, but it makes little or no difference to their lives.

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to allocate additional funding to Argyll and Bute Council, in light of reports of Argyll and Bute health and social care partnership’s funding deficit. (S6O-04687)

The cabinet secretary will be aware that Argyll and Bute Council still has to find £4.2 million to fill the gap in health services, while £500,000-worth of social work savings must also be found.

Islanders face challenges in accessing health and social care services. Research has shown that there is a worrying prevalence of certain health conditions in rural Scotland. Those include Huntington’s disease, of which the north of Scotland has one of the highest rates in the world—five times the global average—yet there is no specialist service in the Highlands for that condition.

What discussions has the cabinet secretary had with her Cabinet colleagues about the forthcoming islands plan and whether it can be used to allocate additional funding to support island health and social care services?

Yes, indeed. After many years of trying to get help from Government, some is now forthcoming; however, it is late, and the replacement needs to happen a bit faster than is currently the case. It is not one ferry, but the whole fleet, that needs to be replaced to bring it up to date. For example, it is not acceptable that people with disabilities are not able to access the ferry.

We should ensure that we are never in that position again. Our islands have much to offer—they provide the green energy that we need, and when we perfect wave and tidal energy technology, that potential will be even greater. At the heart of that, we have the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney. I should also add that Heriot-Watt University has sent members a briefing about its work and its concerns about the future, given the funding pressures on further and higher education.

Basically, all of that is crucial to the wellbeing not only of our islands but our whole country. We need to provide homes for young people to live in, because young islanders are being forced out of their communities due to the lack of affordable housing. Although I welcome initiatives such as the key housing fund, it does not help those young people who are already there. People with capital can come in and outbid them, which means that they can no longer stay on the island.

In health and in local government, we have the distant island allowance for workers, but colleges do not get that as part of their funding package. Paying such an allowance would make them even more financially precarious, but not paying it means that college staff are worse off than their mainland counterparts.

I could go on. The Scottish Government could, and should, take steps to deal with those issues. I urge it to do so, and to empower our island communities.

I move amendment S6M-17598.1, to leave out from first “welcomes” to end and insert:

“notes the first ever national islands plan; believes that much more needs to be done to support island communities; recognises that depopulation is a major issue impacting the islands and that not enough work has been undertaken to counteract this; notes that the Scottish Government has not used the powers available to it to ‘island proof’ policy, resulting in the need to shelve policies such as Highly Protected Marine Areas, the ban on wood burning stoves, and the island bonds plans; believes that the Scottish Government-caused ferry fiasco has had a disastrous effect on the economy, wellbeing and future of many islands; further believes that a new procurement plan that ensures the timely replacement of all ferries is vital; recognises that islanders are best placed to make the decisions affecting their communities, and calls, therefore, on the Scottish Government to empower island communities and ensure that there is proper local representation on ferry boards for CalMac and CMAL.”