This year, 8,700 Scots have waited more than eight hours to be seen at accident and emergency in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde area alone, and 3,141 have waited more than half a day.

I recently spoke to a constituent in Paisley who has had to pay £7,000 of his own money to get a cataract removed privately because he could not wait any longer on the national health service, and he will not be alone.

Will the minister take this opportunity in the final portfolio question time of the parliamentary session to apologise to the thousands of my constituents who have been waiting unacceptably long for treatment and are having to spend their savings to go private to get treatment?

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and what issues were discussed. (S6O-05703)

Earlier this month, the Scottish National Party-run Renfrewshire Council announced that it will increase council tax by 7.5 per cent. That comes after a record 9.5 per cent increase last year. The year before, when councils passed their budgets, the First Minister said that council tax rises of 3 per cent would be reasonable. The cabinet secretary has said that it is a local tax, but it is, of course, also the “unfair” council tax that the SNP promised to scrap in 2007. Since then, we have seen council tax bills going up, services getting cut and councils being underfunded. Does the cabinet secretary or her Government regret breaking their promise to scrap the unfair council tax in 2007?

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to council tax increases approved by local authorities across Scotland for 2026-27. (S6O-05663)

Last month, City Property (Glasgow), which is an arm’s-length organisation of Glasgow City Council, issued its tenants with an eviction notice for their premises at Trongate 103 unless they agreed to sign a new lease under which their rent would rise to up to four times its current level. Trongate 103 is home to organisations such as GMAC, Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre, Glasgow Print Studio and Street Level Photoworks. We all know that local authorities are under significant financial pressure, but the situation is very concerning for the culture sector in Glasgow, particularly following the closure of the Centre for Contemporary Arts. Does the cabinet secretary agree that that would be another devastating blow for Glasgow’s creative sector? What are he and his officials prepared to do? Can they assist those organisations in trying to find a way forward from the situation?

I bet that funding pressures were discussed because, despite the welcome £5.7 million of support that was announced by Renfrewshire Council last week, the health and social care partnership still faces a significant budget shortfall. That means that the closure of the disability resource centre in Paisley, cuts to the autism connections programme and the merger of day centres for adults with learning disabilities are still on the table. Information from the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities shows that the Scottish Government’s underfunding of social care has resulted in an estimated £497 million funding gap for integration joint boards across Scotland this year.

The decision on those vital services in Renfrewshire, which some of the most vulnerable people I represent rely on, has been conveniently pushed back to after the election in June, leaving them anxious. Given that the Government has ignored that issue in the budget, what will the minister do now to address that gap? Given the Scottish National Party’s record until now, is it not the case that, if—I emphasise the “if”—the SNP is still in power after May, it is almost certain that those service cuts will go ahead?

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met Renfrewshire health and social care partnership and what was discussed. (S6O-05587)

I thank the Deputy First Minister for advance sight of her statement. The number 1 reason why we do not have a resilient ferry service is that we do not have a resilient ferry fleet. The SNP has taken almost 19 years to equal the number of ferries that were built under the Scottish Labour-led Government in the previous eight years.

I welcome the decision to directly award two ferries and two marine vessels to Ferguson Marine. The yard has a track record of building such vessels, and Scottish Labour has said before that the Scottish Government needs to lead by example by awarding the yard future work.

I join the Deputy First Minister in commending the work of the GMB, and particularly Alex Logan. There has been a lot of blame going around about the ferries fiasco, but the one group of people who have been blameless throughout are the workforce.

When does the Deputy First Minister expect work on the vessels to start and to be completed by? When will the business plan for yard modernisation be updated? To give confidence to the Parliament, the public and the workforce, will the Deputy First Minister say which of those measures will be completed by the time she leaves office?

I welcome the opportunity to speak in the debate. Jamie Hepburn commented that it is one of a number of debates that we have had on football recently. I have not participated in all of them, but some might say that we have had some fixture congestion when it comes to debates on football in the chamber. I thank Gillian Mackay for bringing this particular one to the chamber to recognise the importance of fans to our national game.

It is worth repeating the immortal words of Jock Stein that football without fans is nothing. That is absolutely true anywhere in the world, but the passion and support that there is here in Scotland is seldom surpassed. The Scottish premiership already has a higher weekly match attendance per head than any other country in Europe, and that was before the rollercoaster that we have witnessed this season, with St Mirren winning the league cup, Scotland qualifying for the world cup and an exciting title race involving four teams, with Hearts and Motherwell not just winning games but playing fantastic football. As we have heard, we also still have eight teams that could win the Scottish cup. What a brilliant time to be a football fan in Scotland.

As we have heard, we must recognise the costs for fans of attending games. I have said before in relation to the world cup, and I would say in relation to football at any level, that we cannot or should not price ordinary working people out of the game that they love. Therefore, as Mr Whittle has done, I welcome and commend the schemes that are operated by clubs such as St Mirren and others that offer significantly reduced ticket prices for children or indeed free tickets for local schoolchildren. For families on low incomes, attending football matches can be particularly challenging.

I do. There are affordability issues, particularly for away fans but also for home fans, so we need to consider both in the round. For families who attend matches, as well as the ticket prices, there is everything else that goes along with that, even for home matches.

We must recognise the significant economic contribution that Scottish football and its supporters make. A recent report by the Fraser of Allander Institute that was commissioned by the Scottish Professional Football League, the Scottish Football Association and the Scottish Women’s Premier League showed that the national game creates £840 million in gross value added in the economy and supports 14,315 full-time equivalent jobs.

It is clear that ticket revenues are an important part of clubs’ revenues, and we must recognise that. However, I hope and expect that our football clubs will look carefully at what more can be done to balance revenue needs with the need to make attending football matches more affordable, not just for away fans but for home fans. There is no doubt that away fans help to create an atmosphere at football matches, but our football clubs will surely want to boost attendance and fill any seats in the home stands, if they can.

I thank Gillian Mackay for securing the debate. I look forward to hearing the response from the 42 clubs and from the Scottish Government. I agree that clubs should listen to and engage with fans, and I join other members in praising the work that fans do.

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