Chamber and committees

I am afraid that the cabinet secretary’s statement is wholly depressing. The Government seems to be more interested in attacking the Labour Party than in solving child poverty in this country. We should have a direct focus on that.

Although I support the Scottish child payment—providing direct cash payments is a good thing—we know that it is not sustainable in the long term for struggling families or for the public finances. We should be putting more investment into projects such as the Wise Group’s relational mentoring programme. I know that the Government is supporting that project, but I wish that there was more excitement about lifting families out of poverty in a sustainable way for the long term, instead of all the politicking that is going on this afternoon.

I receive regular reports of ambulances queued for a long time outside Victoria hospital in Kirkcaldy. The Government wasted endless amounts of time and energy on the centralisation of the care service, but it neglected the reform that the sector requires. That is the central problem. We do not have the flow through the hospital into social care. Where is the brand-new plan to sort out social care in Scotland?

On occasions such as this, I feel inadequate in that I do not speak the Gaelic language. However, in the past, Liberal Democrat members have been fluent—well, John Farquhar Munro was a keen advocate of the language. On one occasion when he was delivering his contribution to a debate, the interpretation went silent, so George Lyon, another former colleague of mine, made a point of order to ask whether something was technically incorrect. However, it was not; it was just that the interpreter could not understand a word that John Farquhar Munro was saying. Such is, perhaps, the diversity of the language.

I am grateful to the Deputy First Minister for piloting the bill, because—to answer the points that Michael Marra made—it has given a new focus and energy to the revitalisation of the Gaelic language. We were pretty underwhelmed by the bill when we started. It is pretty minimalist. Ross Greer is right to say that it has improved, but the reality is that if we are relying on just the bill to revitalise the language, we will fail. I was grateful that the Deputy First Minister recognised that. If she had started the process, this would not be her bill; she would be doing something much more substantial, together with the wider plan that she has instigated in other areas.

We know that we are in a crisis. There is a real determination from many, but that might not be enough. We saw from the witnesses who gave evidence to the committee that there were pretty strong views and tensions. On some occasions, it was just as well that the witnesses sat with somebody in between them, because they felt so strongly about the language and its importance.

Like Ross Greer, I am incredibly grateful for the support of the bill team. Not only are its members outstanding; they care deeply about the language. That gives me confidence that we will be able to move forward and make progress.

The language used to be suppressed by the state. Now, it is supported by the state and elevated by the state. However, just when the state is behind the language, people are neglecting it in their communities and moving away from it. That should alarm us. Although we are getting the language expanded and spread across Scotland in schools, when it comes to the pub, the cafe or the home, people do not use the language daily in the way that we would like it to be used. It should not be peripheral but central to their lives. We need a critical mass to make that happen, and extra support in communities will be required to give it critical mass and enhanced credibility so that it does not retreat further.

A bizarre knock-on effect of spreading Gaelic-medium education into our cities is that there is now a shortage of Gaelic-medium education teachers in many schools in traditional Gaelic-speaking areas. It is bizarre—extraordinary, in some ways—that the very communities that we are trying to help are being damaged by that expansion across the country. We therefore need to make sure that we give the right support in our traditional communities.

I am pleased that the Sabhal Mòr Ostaig amendment was passed, and I hope that the college will be given enhanced and elevated status so that it becomes a national centre. I am pleased that we are moving towards a simplified process for designating Gaelic-medium education schools.

I am particularly interested in the potential of the Gàidhealtachd—the areas of linguistic significance. On the surface, the concept is pretty vacuous and might not mean an awful lot, unless local authorities and communities really get behind it. My hope is that it will be a central gathering point for the energy for change, so that the retreat is reversed and progress is enhanced.

Finally, I am also pleased about the enhancement, for the first time, for Scots. It is an important part of our community and society and we should be supporting it.

I, too, am delighted that Gillian Munro is in the public gallery today. She is a very modest but determined woman. She is rightly determined to make sure that this happens.

The Deputy First Minister has set out a positive vision that involves bringing together different parts of the strategy, with Sabhal Mòr Ostaig being an important part of that process. I am pleased to hear her say those things. I hope that the people who are conducting the review hear not just my words but those of Ross Greer at stage 2 and of Pam Duncan-Glancy this afternoon, and understand that the review must be conducted at pace. I hope that the conclusion is positive, in the way that I would like to see. It is important that we enhance the role of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig to make it an important part of the vision that the Deputy First Minister has set out.

Amendment 4 agreed to.

Amendments 5 to 9 moved—[Willie Rennie]—and agreed to.

Section 25B—Status of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig

Amendment 10 moved—[Willie Rennie]—and agreed to.

Section 25C—Power to enforce duties of public authorities

Amendments 50 to 57 moved—[Kate Forbes]—and agreed to.

Section 27—Scots language strategy

Working towards delivery, when there is only one year to go before the end of this Government’s term in office, is simply not good enough. Fife is well down the league table in relation to spending on mental health and on CAMHS. The effect on other services, including the police, is dramatic, as is the effect on the economy, with lots of people unable to work, because this Government cannot give them the support that they need. When will there be a renewed focus on making sure that mental health is the priority that it deserves to be?

In the spirit of seeking consensus, there is an opportunity to grow the Scottish economy through the increase in UK defence spending, but I am concerned that, because of Scottish Government policy on defence spending, we might miss out on that investment. Can the Deputy First Minister confirm that the Scottish Government will seek to work in partnership with the UK Government to make the most of that investment? Will the Scottish Government change its current policy?

We know that the Scottish National Party is in trouble on performance when it refuses to be compared with England. The reality is that the Government is way behind. It says that it is moving at pace, but if it is moving that fast, why can the minister not give us a date, like in England, when the work will be completed?

Implicit in the Deputy First Minister’s speech was an acknowledgement—I could say an admission—that the Government went off track for a number of years, that it was seen to be anti-business, that it had policies of apparently never-ending increases in taxation and regulation and that there was a suspicion of business and entrepreneurship. The change in rhetoric today is a helpful sign that the Government is moving in the right direction, but there is an implicit acknowledgement that things went off track, which, along the lines that Lorna Slater outlined, contributed to the decline in investment in the housing sector but also in many other sectors that have feared the ever-growing reach and the approach of the Government. Nevertheless, it is a move in the right direction.

On top of that, there has been an unstable political environment in those areas, and there has been turbulence from things such as Brexit, Liz Truss’s budget and the independence referendum. I am sure that the Deputy First Minister will not agree with the latter point, but all that turbulence has added to uncertainty in business, which has held back decision making and investment. That is why we need to get to a much more pragmatic, stable relationship.

I have seen good examples of progress. The improvement of the pipeline to support different businesses at different stages of their growth is a good development. Programmes that instil knowledge, understanding and confidence, such as the rural leadership programme through Scottish Enterprise and others, are good examples of developing political and personal capacity and skills in certain sectors.

However, we still face challenges in a number of areas, and universities, which Stephen Kerr referred to, are probably the biggest example of that. We would not know it, but the University of Edinburgh, which is getting a lot of negative publicity just now, created 127 new companies in 2023-24. Universities are major generators of economic growth in this country. We used to sing all the time about the University of Dundee’s life sciences, but that university still does not have a rescue package in place to ensure that its research capacity and, to be frank, its brilliance will continue. We need to address a number of problems.

I hope that that means that, by the end of the week, we will have an arrangement with the university to secure its future, because we have been waiting for that for far too long.

We have had problems with business research and development for a number of years. Scotland has always lagged behind the rest of the United Kingdom in that regard. The UK figure is currently 1.96 per cent, while in Scotland it is 1.45 per cent, which is way down on where we should be. That is an indicator of businesses’ confidence to invest in their futures, and that is why we need a Government that brings stability and ensures that we invest in the right people and the right skills. I have concerns about the Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill in that regard. We need to ensure that it tackles the real problems that we face in that sector, because if we do not have the skills, the people, the institutions and the right attitude, we will not be able to grow our entrepreneurial companies for the future.

I hope that the Government is listening and that it understands that those challenges need to be addressed if we are to grow.

What is the plan for munitions in an independent Scotland? Where will we buy them from? Will we make them ourselves? If it is not the taxpayer, who will fund them? Those are serious questions that highlight the inconsistency in the SNP’s approach. Would an independent Scotland have any munitions at all?