That may be the case in some areas, but, in others, workers from Eastern Europe have made the difference between local schools and other services existing or not existing, and they have been well integrated into the community. With that observation rather than question, I will allow us to move on.

I have to stop you there, because I am not asking you whether the NFUS has any concerns about the Scottish Government’s policy; rather, I am asking you how you respond to its concern—as expressed to other parliamentary committees—that measures such as the Subsidy Control Act 2022 and the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 constrain the future ability of the Scottish Parliament to make its own policy on agriculture.

That would be helpful. I suspect that the costs are more difficult to bear for smaller businesses. I will briefly quote a couple of examples from my constituency. Donald Joseph Maclean of Barratlantic said:

“The new export systems mean it doesn’t make economic sense to send smaller individual deliveries to Europe like before, as these now cost the same as large consignments to process ... As a result, we now bundle smaller orders together in the same consignment ... The costs of Brexit are astronomical and I feel for smaller suppliers who are struggling.”

Another constituent, Amber Knight of MacNeil Shellfish, said:

“it has added a lot of extra pressure and workload that was created overnight. Most businesses going through that level of organisational change would not manage. It’s tough keeping it up and staying consistent, and it has added huge costs.”

You acknowledge that there is likely to be a degree of variation, but do you appreciate the concerns of smaller businesses such as those about trying to cope with all this?

You mentioned that you do not want to talk about trade wars, and you were critical of ministers in Ireland for using such language. However, can you understand why they and others might be fearful about that very situation, if the UK is prepared to step away from what is an international agreement in the form of the Northern Ireland protocol?

Has the UK made any specific assessment of production costs for businesses in Scotland as a result of having to bear the cost of the border controls that we have just touched on?

The UK Government has spoken about bespoke solutions for rural areas when it comes to migration policy. Did we not have that when we had freedom of movement for workers across Europe?

I asked because the visas to which you refer do not appear to be meeting demand and, more generally, because I wonder whether the UK Government appreciates that Scotland has a particular demographic issue in that our overall population has barely gone up in the past century. Our challenge has been outward migration. Is it perhaps time to reconsider the proposals in relation to rural and other areas of Scotland that the Scottish Government put to the UK Government again and again for tailored visas of the kind that exist, for example, for the Canadian provinces, so that you can meet the demographic and labour needs in Scotland more accurately?

Again, I do not understand the comparison. You are making a comparison with the kind of constraints that existed when we were in the EU, but we are no longer in the EU and, since 1998, agriculture has been virtually entirely devolved. We have already heard about GM crops; many people ask about the ability of the Scottish Parliament to legislate on GM crops in the future. Another example is bodies that speak up for people with alcohol problems, who have questioned whether the Scottish Parliament would be able to legislate in the way that it has done on minimum unit pricing for alcohol, if the internal market act and the other laws that we mentioned are to stand in future. Do you understand those concerns?

I think that you are mistaken, Presiding Officer—apologies.

It is, indeed, a big part. Jamie Greene will be aware that I have been in touch with the Government regularly on that subject, to ensure that the process of insulating houses is restarted and increased at pace. The commitment from the Government exists, and the Government is working to make it happen.

It is certainly good to see an increased focus on what, in practical terms, carbon neutral communities can mean for islands. That is partly about ensuring direct economic benefits for island communities from renewables projects through supply chains, leasing income and decisions about the location of infrastructure. It was good to see, only yesterday, the Deputy First Minister cutting the first sod for the new deep-water port for Stornoway, with those aims in mind.

Part of the solution is ensuring continued improvements to the housing stock in the islands, which has been alluded to. Addressing island fuel poverty must be one of the essential things that we seek to do when we exploit island renewables.

This is partly about simply thinking about the future. Although island communities might not lend themselves to a huge expansion of public transport, we can look to a future in which electric cars and buses are more viable options, and in which some smaller ferries and even planes on the islands can be electric.

Many individuals, groups and businesses on the islands are already making a huge effort to reduce their carbon footprints and to protect their islands’ unique environments and biodiversity. I think not least of the fact that Arnish, in the Western Isles, is probably the most rapidly scalable green hydrogen production location in the UK.

I am pleased that Barra, within my constituency, is one of the six islands that the Scottish Government is pledging to directly support. I am sure that the benefits from that investment will be quick to spill over to the rest of our island communities.

As we look to build a greener future, islands must be at the forefront of our thinking—not only as a source of energy, but as an example of what communities can do with that energy to make people warmer and healthier. That will also make the communities that others classify as remote become more economically resilient and attractive places to live in the years to come.